Calle del Fósforo
It takes its name from the match, the little firestick, though no record survives of the exact reason for the name.
The name points to a small everyday object: the match, the sliver of wood with a head of flammable paste that catches when struck. The word comes from the Greek phosphoros, “light-bearer.” Anyone walking this short street in the Imperial district reads a name of the kitchen and the pocket, the kind that lit the brazier or the cigar.
Why this street was named so is not documented. No record survives of a match factory here, nor of any episode to justify it. The calle del Fósforo begins near the paseo Imperial and runs beside the calle de la Pizarra, in a corner of Arganzuela laid out when the area was ceasing to be pasture and washerwomen’s fields by the Manzanares to fill with workshops and working-class housing.