What's in a Prague street name

Na Dobešce was built in 1925.

It’s been said that this is named after a massive oak tree in the vicinity (an oak is a ‘dub’, and more on that in a few streets’ time).

However, for the other story, we can go to the 1931 writings of Karel Čapek (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/01/30/prague-2-day-24-sady-bratri-capku/ for a post I particularly enjoyed writing).

Čapek said that – as is the case for so many of streets we’ve covered so far – Na Dobešce is named after a former farmstead called Dobeška (Dobeš is an old Czech variant of the name Tobiáš).

I always try to avoid taking photos of people’s homes that could be deemed intrusive – hence these two not showing you a great deal – but number 1, Na Dobešce is interesting.

It was built by Jan Kaplický (1937-2009), who you might know best for his Neofuturistic Selfridge’s Centre in Birmingham, and whose plan for a National Library in Prague was commissioned in 2007, but cancelled in 2008.

Just before Kaplický moved to the UK in 1968, he created this house for two friends of his parents, the painter František Dvořák (1925-2002) and his wife Ludmila.

Marvellous 2012 photo of the Selfridge’s Centre below, by Bs0u10e0 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bs0u10e0/6783635687/).

And of the failed library? Let’s just say that you’d have noticed it: https://cesky.radio.cz/realizace-kaplickeho-navrhu-narodni-knihovny-je-zrejme-v-nedohlednu-8596561.