Binondo-San Nicolas Tales 02: Former Names of Several Streets

For the first post of this blog series, please click here.
For the next post of this blog series, please click here.

The renowned novel Noli Me Tangere by Dr. Jose P. Rizal mentions some names of old Manila streets like “Calle Anloague”, “Calle Sacristia” and “Calle San Jacinto” which surrounds Binondo Church up to the present time. Dr. Rizal did not invent these street names, in fact, he was familiar of (or at least, had heard of) some of the Binondo driveways in the 19^th century.

When our Filipino teacher was discussing a part of the novel mentioning the location of Kapitan Tiago’s house in a certain “Calle Anloague”, I wondered which particular street Rizal was pertaining to. As more former street names popped out from the novel, curiosity struck and until now, it is yet to be satisfied. Well, if not for my Filipino teacher, I would’ve not known that Calle Anloague is the current Juan Luna Street, Calle Sacristia is the Ongpin Street, and Calle San Jacinto is T. Pinpin Street.

However, with the technology that we have, we are fortunate that we don’t need to personally go to some public libraries to search. I didn’t know that some old Manila maps are readily available on the net until I found them in Wikimedia Commons. There, I finally knew a lot of what Manila looked like before. Luckily, some maps bear street names, which again sparked my interest towards former names of Binondo’s thoroughfares.

And now I am most willing to share with you Binondo and San Nicolas’ former street names as depicted from an old Manila map in 1898. Please note that there are some roads that may have multiple names, some that have retained the names, and some that have changes in spelling. So, suit yourself and let me bring you back in time.

BINONDO DISTRICT

CURRENT NAME	FORMER NAME(S)	NOTES
Quintin Paredes Road	Calle Rosario
Ongpin Street	Calle Sacristia	segment after Sabino Padilla (Gandara) Street in Sta. Cruz bore another name “Calle Lacoste”
Juan Luna Street	Calle Carenel	between Dasmariñas and Muelle del Banco Nacional Streets
	Calle Anloague	between Plaza Calderon and Dasmariñas Street
	Calle de Jolo	between Sta. Elena Street and Plaza Calderon
	Calle Lemeri	from Sta. Elena Street northward to Tondo District
Reina Regente Street	Calle Reyna Cristina
E. T. Yuchengco Street	Calle Nueva
Tomas Pinpin Street	Calle San Jacinto
Dasmariñas Street	Calle Dasmariñas	between E. T. Yuchengco (Nueva) and T. Pinpin Streets
	Calle Turce	between Quintin Paredes and E. T. Yuchengco (Nueva) Streets
	Calle Olivares	between Quintin Paredes and Juan Luna Streets
	Calle Soledad	between Juan Luna Street and Estero de Binondo
Salazar Street	Calle Zalazar
G. Masangkay Street	Calle San Jose	between C. M. Recto Avenue and Salazar Street only; segment in Sta. Cruz bore different name “Calle Magdalena”
Benavidez Street	Calle Benavidez	segment in Sta. Cruz was called “Calle Diaz”
Escolta Street	Calle de la Escolta
San Vicente Street	Calle Gavey	between Quintin Paredes and E. T. Yuchengco (Nueva) Streets only
	Calle San Vicente	remaining segment retains present name
La Chambre Street	Plaza de Felipe II	not a street at that time
Meisic Street	Calle Meysic
Hormiga Street	Calle Hormiga
Sabino Padilla Street	Calle Gandara	also Calle Gandara in Sta. Cruz segment
Soler Street	Calle Soler	also Calle Soler in Sta. Cruz segment
Claro M. Recto Avenue	Calle del General Izquierdo	segment that meets Masangkay and Benavidez Streets only; other segments bore different names

SAN NICOLAS DISTRICT

CURRENT NAME	FORMER NAME(S)	NOTES
Claro M. Recto Avenue	Paseo de Azcarraga	from Ylaya Street to Asuncion Street only; remaining portions did not exist at that time
Sta. Elena Street	Calle Aceyteros
Santo Cristo Street	Calle de Santo Cristo	between San Fernando and M. de Santos Streets only
	Calle Sagunto	between C. M. Recto Avenue and M. de Santos Street
Fundidor Street	Calle Fundidor
Ylaya Street	Calle Ilaya	also Calle Ilaya in Tondo District segment
Tabora Street	Calle Tabora
Carmen Planas Street	Calle Acuña	between C. M. Recto Avenue and M. de Santos Street; segment in Tondo District bore another name “Calle Fulgueras”
Ilang Ilang Street	Calle Ilang Ilang
Elcano Street	Calle Elcano	between Urbiztondo and Lavezares Streets
	Calle Salinas	from Lavezares Street northward to Tondo District
Caballeros Street	Calle Caballero
Asuncion Street	Calle dela Asuncion	between San Fernando and M. de Santos Streets only
	Calle Encarnacion	between C. M. Recto Avenue and M. de Santos Street
Camba Street	Calle Camba	between Jaboneros and M. de Santos Streets only
	Calle Soledad	between C. M. Recto Avenue and M. de Santos Street
Madrid Street	Calle Madrid
Barcelona Street	Calle Barcelona
Sevilla Street	Calle Sevilla	segment from Clavel Street northward to C. M. Recto Avenue did not exist at that time
Delpan Street	Calle del Principe
Barraca Street	Calle Barraca
Numancia Street	Calle Numancia
Urbiztondo Street	Calle Urbistondo
San Fernando Street	Calle San Fernando
Jaboneros Street	Calle Jaboneros
Lara Street	Calle Lara
San Nicolas Street	Calle San Nicolas
Lavezares Street	Calle Lavezares
Peñarubia Street	Calle Peñanarubia
Clavel Street	Calle Clavel

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