Calle del Cobre

The name comes from the forge, not from a person. The calle del Cobre belongs to the part of Delicias known as the Metals district, a cluster of streets labeled with the names of metals: lead, iron, bronze, zinc, chromium, rhodium. Walking here you read, almost without meaning to, a table of minerals laid over the street map. This southeastern strip of Madrid was shaped by its closeness to the Delicias station, opened in 1880, and to Atocha. The railway lines drew workshops, foundries and factories, and industrial land spread through the twentieth century. Once the plants closed and were demolished, they gave way to blocks of flats, and the metal streets were traced over that recovered ground. Today the calle del Cobre is quiet and residential, and the only metal seen shining is that of the plaques bearing its name.