Calle del Doctor Fleming

In September 1928, the Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming found one of his culture plates invaded by a mold: where the fungus grew, the bacteria had died. From that lucky slip came penicillin, the first effective antibiotic. Madrid wanted to thank him: the bullfighters' association raised a monument to him beside Las Ventas, because the drug cured the goring wounds that had once killed so many matadors. Its fame came mainly at night. From the 1950s, American servicemen from the Torrejón base filled the bars of the Calle del Doctor Fleming, in Chamartín, and the area became known as “Costa Fleming,” a byword for lights, drinks, and nightlife.