What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 6 December 2022.

Building started around 1903, with the street actually getting its name in 1920.

Formerly the location for a factory that produced mill machinery, the ‘Vinohrady market hall’ was designed by architect Antonín Turek, and was built between 1901 to 1903.

Vinohrady has quite a lot to thank Turek for – for one thing, he was responsible for designing the Vinohrady Water Tower two decades earlier (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-3-day-186-u-vodarny/).

In the 1890s, he designed the Národní dům on Náměstí míru, where he would also play a role in the concept for the Vinohrady Theatre (which opened in 1907). Photos of both are coming in a few streets’ time.

The hall had over 100 different food stalls; it closed in the 1980s and was apparently burned down in 1986, although I can’t find any footage of this.

What I can find is proof that, unlike its current bright colours, it used to be green: https://aaheta.cz/pages/main.php?show=projinfo&lng=cz&id_proj=46

The building was reopened as one of post-communist Prague’s first shopping centres – Pavilon – in 1994.

Its shops sell ‘things you buy despite not always knowing what they are, and not having the money, because they might look awesome at home, and then you realise they don’t fit in with any of your furniture’ variety.

Apart from the Albert downstairs. That’s of the, well, Albert variety.