Calle del Marqués de Valdeiglesias

Calle de las Torres it was called for more than two centuries. The name came from the house of the ambassador Juan García de Figueroa⁠—⁠almost certainly García de Silva y Figueroa, sent by Philip III to the shah of Persia in 1614⁠—⁠whose facade displayed two towers topped with coats of arms and trophies of arms. That stone image was enough to fix the name on this stretch linking the Gran Vía with the Calle de las Infantas. In 1902 the street changed its name, true to the Restoration habit of sharing out the street map among its politicians. The chosen one was Ignacio José Escobar, one of the most influential journalists of conservatism: he directed and came to own La Época, turned under his lead into an unofficial organ of Cánovas del Castillo. He received the title of marquis in 1879.

In 1843, Ignacio José Escobar published in El Corresponsal a theater review that the actor Julián Romea took as an affront. The challenge ended in a duel from which both emerged unharmed. Years later, this same journalist was commissioned by Cánovas del Castillo to deliver the Sandhurst Manifesto to Alfonso XII (December 1874): he was captured twice by Carlist troops along the way —⁠the second time in Navarre, where he was sentenced to death⁠— and on both occasions was pardoned before completing his mission.