What's in a Prague street name

Ledařská was built in 1998.

A ‘ledař” is someone who works with ice (and so you’d most likely hear the word, these days, in connection with ice hockey). A ‘ledárna’, meanwhile, would be an ‘icehouse’ or an ‘iceworks’.

At the turn of the 20th century, the innkeepers of Prague were using the icehouse on Štvanice Island (which gets a mention on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/23/prague-1-day-214-siroka/).

They needed ice, taken from the Vltava, to cool beer. But, by 1909, they needed somewhere where ice could be stored all year round, irrespective of whether there was any in the Vltava or not.

Therefore, a group of them formed a company and, between 1909 and 1911, saw to the construction of what became known as the Branické ledárny. It (or rather, the horses pulling the carts) were able to deliver ice across Prague in all four seasons.

The complex included stables for the horses, a villa (used as the works’ office), and a house for the building manager. The area was so lively that the local trams had their terminus here.

However, between 1949 and 1955, the Slapy Reservoir / vodní nádrž Slapy was constructed about 22 km south of Prague. The construction of various dams and weirs keeps the temperature of the Vltava above freezing (its last significant freeze was in 1978).

This wasn’t great news for the icehouse, which no longer had much, or any, ice from the Vltava to accommodate. Operations came to an end in 1954; the trams no longer passed by the icehouse after 1959.

The area has been considered for a museum (in the 1980s), a brothel (in the 1990s – there isn’t really anyone living round here to object, at least compared to other proposed locations), and luxury apartments and a hotel (in the 2010s).

Instead, the buildings are in something is a state of neglect.

There’s still a functioning stable for horses, though.

The area was the location of concerts as part of the Prague Open Air initiative for a few years, but these have since been moved to Holešovice, as locals weren’t too thrilled with the sound levels: https://www.prahain.cz/zivot-ve-meste/iniciativa-bojujici-proti-koncertum-v-arealu-ledaren-branik-zvitezila-22445.html.