U Hellady was named in 1947, and, it was given a street sign, it was very well hidden last weekend. Here’s the street itself.
In Vinohrady in 1920, František Kadlec and František Vobořil founded a company called Hellada (presumably named after something to do with Greece). It produced soap, soap flakes and laundry detergent.
In the mid-1920s, it moved here in Michle, taking over the former premises of a decommissioned power plant. Interestingly, the company also purchased a local house which had been lived in by violinist and composer Jan Kubelík (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/01/14/prague-3-day-138-kubelikova/).
By 1939, more than 450 employees worked here.
Hellada was nationalised in 1948, and its premises were taken over by (the obviously state-owned) Sana, which produced candles.
The Hellada company was revitalised in 1993, and, while the original Hellada building was demolished in 2022 (after failed attempts to create a block of flats, and to create a memorial to Kubelík), modern Hellada has its headquarters right across the road, and remains one the country’s main producers of cosmetics.
The graffiti put a smile on my face here too.
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