Calle del Laurel
It takes its name from a leafy laurel that grew in a garden nearby and that the neighbors linked to the street before the name became official.
In this corner of Las Acacias grew a laurel with an abundant crown that caught the eye of passersby, and the neighborhood began referring to the street by that tree before the name appeared in any official record.
The City Council made la calle del Laurel official in 1874, giving legal standing to an already settled custom. It is a street of modern opening, laid out when Arganzuela was ceasing to be a fringe of orchards and brickworks south of Madrid to fill with blocks and workshops. Today it runs between the paseo de las Acacias and the paseo de Juan Antonio Vallejo-Nájera Botas, and links up with the calle de Moratines.
Of the original laurel no trace remains. No one recorded where the garden was or when the tree vanished, and of that specimen only the word survives on the plaque.