What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 1 July 2022.

U Staré cihelny was built in 1925.

A cihelna is a brickyard, or a brick plant. So this street is ‘at the old brickyard’.

This particular brickyard was possibly the one owned by Josef Vacek – see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/20/prague-3-day-57-na-vackove/.

Indeed, that brickyard is why the surrounding area was built up at all – the workers at Vacek’s factory needed housing, hence the creation of the neighbourhood (with a commute only slightly longer than the one most of us had during lockdown).