Calle del Cerro de la Plata
The street recalls a hill in southeastern Madrid, beside the Abroñigal stream, whose name “of silver” was ironic: it referred to the black coal dust left there by steam engines.
There was a real rise here. The hill gave its name to this corner of southeastern Madrid, on the edge where the Abroñigal stream came down before the M-30 buried it. From the top, panoramic views of the city were taken.
The name “of silver” was born as a joke. The same hill was also known as Cerro Negro: the steam engines leaving Atocha and Delicias unloaded their coal dust there, and the ground stayed stained black. Calling it “of silver” was turning the color of coal on its head.
In the early twentieth century a freight station was built beside the railway, and with it piled up mounds of mud and coal dust up to ten meters high, which made the area one of the most degraded corners of Madrid. In the 1980s those deposits were removed to build the Enrique Tierno Galván park. Where the coal dust once piled up, grass now grows.