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 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.