Calle del Arroyo del Canalillo
The street takes its name from the Canalillo, an open-air irrigation channel built from 1868 onwards to distribute the surplus water of the Canal de Isabel II. Its eastern branch, just over 16 km long, crossed the Guindalera watering the market gardens, tile works and potteries of southeastern Madrid until it closed as an irrigation route in 1967.
The name preserves the memory of a stream that no longer exists. The Canalillo was an open-air channel first designed in 1868 to distribute the surplus water of the Canal de Isabel II, which until then had ended up spilling into the Cantarranas stream.
Its course split into two branches. The eastern one ran just over 16 kilometres and made a remarkable journey across the city: it skirted the paseo de la Castellana, passed by the Residencia de Estudiantes, crossed María de Molina and Diego de León and dropped down toward the Guindalera, watering the market gardens of the Ibarrondo neighbourhood and keeping alive the tile works and potteries of southeastern Madrid.
The Canalillo stopped irrigating in 1967 and gradually vanished from the landscape through the 1970s.
Sources (6)
- Canalillo — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Juan de Ribera Piferrer — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- La Guindalera — Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
- Acequia de riego del Este de Madrid: el «canalillo» — Urban Idade
- El Canalillo a la altura de la Guindalera y Parque de las Avenidas — Por las calles de Madrid
- El antiguo canalillo de 6 kilómetros — El Diario / Somos Tetuán