What's in a Prague street name

U krčské vodárny was built in 1925.

Until 1952, it had a ‘I’ at the end of its name, due to the (then) existence of U krčské vodárny II (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/05/07/prague-4-day-378-antala-staska/).

And U krčské vodárny III (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/05/18/prague-4-day-383-zachova/).

*And* U krčské vodárny IV (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/05/13/prague-4-day-381-sevce-matouse/). It seems there was even a V, which I haven’t written about yet.

For something that had so many streets named after it, the Krč Waterworks are surprisingly hard to get information about. We know they were built in 1912; the water tower was fourteen metres tall and looked like this: https://krc-historie.cz/image/1235.

A newspaper article gives us confidence that it was still operating in 1926; it also appears on a map (not necessarily bang up-to-date) from 1938.

It was destroyed at some point in the 1930s – very comprehensively, it would seem – and its function was taken over by the water tower in Michle (which will come up; it’s visible in a photo on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/04/14/prague-4-day-356-za-zelenou-liskou/, and still exists.

For waterworks which are still operating and which I was able to write a heck of a lot more about, see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/07/12/prague-4-day-142-vodarenska/.

For former waterworks in Vinohrady, see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-3-day-186-u-vodarny/ (and ignore that ‘should open in 2024’ bit – they’re now saying 2027).

Which means that, if you want to access any Prague waterworks as a member of the public, this is still your only choice for now: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/10/prague-1-day-258-nove-mlyny/.

Finally, as a visitor to Prague, if you’ve only seen one former waterworks, there’s a 99.9% chance it was this one: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/30/prague-1-day-157-novotneho-lavka/.

I love writing these posts, but somehow, being able to link to old ones gives me almost as much satisfaction.