Bleecker Street

For other uses, see Bleecker Street (disambiguation).

Looking south from Abingdon Square

Looking north towards West 10th Street

Bleecker Street looking west from The Bowery.

Bleecker Street is a street in New York City's Manhattan borough. It is perhaps most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street is a spine that connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was once a major center for American bohemia.

Bleecker Street connects Abingdon Square, the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Hudson Street in the West Village, to the Bowery in the East Village.

Nearby sites include Washington Square Park and music venue Cafe Wha?, where Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, Kool & the Gang, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and many others began their careers. The club CBGB, which closed in 2006, was located at the east end of Bleecker Street, at the corner of Bowery.

Transportation

Bleecker Street is served by the 4 6 <6> trains at Bleecker Street station. Southbound (downtown) passengers can transfer to the Broadway – Lafayette Street station for service on the B D F M trains. The 1 2 trains serve the Christopher Street – Sheridan Square station one block north of Bleecker Street.

Traffic on the street is one-way, going south and east. Early in December 2007 a portion was set aside as a bicycle lane.

History

Bleecker Street is named by and after the Bleecker family because the street ran through the farm of the family. In 1808, Anthony Bleecker and his wife deeded to the city a major portion of the land on which Bleecker Street sits.

Originally Bleecker Street extended only as far west as Sixth Avenue. In 1829 it was joined with Herring Street, extending Bleecker Street northwest to Abingdon Square.

Landmarks

• Bayard-Condict Building
• Bleecker Street Cinemas, closed in 1991
• Our Lady of Pompeii Church, Carmine Street

Notable night spots

• The Bitter End at 147 Bleecker Street
• Cafe Au Go Go was at 152 Bleecker Street
• Kenny's Castaways at 157 Bleecker Street
• The Village Gate was at 160 Bleecker Street
• (Le) Poisson Rouge at 158 Bleecker Street

Notable eateries

• Magnolia Bakery at the corner of Bleecker Street and West 11th St.
• Bleecker Street Pizza
• John's of Bleecker Street
• Pasticceria Rocco - Rocco's Pastry Shop
• Grom gelateria at the corner of Bleecker and Carmine

Notable residents

• James Agee lived at 172 Bleecker Street, above Cafe Espanol (1941–1951)
• Mark Van Doren
• Robert Frank
• Alicia Keys
• Craig Rodwell lived at 350 Bleecker Street (1968–1993)
• Dave Winer

Cultural references

Literature

• Valenti Angelo's 1949 novel The Bells of Bleecker Street is set in the Italian American community in that neighborhood.
• Bleecker Street is referenced in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, notably in The Wolves of the Calla.
• The Marc Jacobs store on Bleecker Street is mentioned in the novel Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes as a hangout for emaciated young women.
• In The Bear Comes Home, Rafi Zabor names a jazz album 'If There's a Bleecker Street Than This One, I Don't Know Its Name.'
• Nobel laureate Derek Walcott has written a poem about Bleecker Street entitled "Bleecker Street, Summer."
• Bleecker Street is referenced in Theodore Dreiser's story "Old Rogaum and His Theresa"
• In Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, the character Coleman Silk takes the woman who would later be his wife to a Bleecker Street cafe early in their relationship.
• Bleecker Street and Pasticceria Rocco are mentioned in José Domingos Costa's short story "The Living Museum".

Film and television

• Bleecker Street is in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008).
• Bleecker Street Cinema is mentioned in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan (1985).
• 11th and Bleecker is mentioned in New Line Home Entertainment's production of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990).
• Peter Parker tells Mary Jane that he saw her billboard advertisement on Bleecker in Spider-Man 2 (2004).
• Long-running television series Friends featured Bleecker Street signposts in several cut-scenes.
• Much of the film No Reservations (2007), starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart, is set in a restaurant on the corner of Bleecker and Charles streets. The name of their fictitious restaurant is 22 Bleecker.
• In The WB series What I Like About You, Holly and Valerie live in an apartment on Bleecker Street.
• In the remake of The Time Machine (2002), starring Guy Pearce, Pearce's character at one point early in the film requests to be taken to Bleecker Street.
• The Happy Carrot restaurant Woody Allen's character owned in the movie Sleeper (1973) was on Bleecker Street.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the movie Gangs of New York (2002).
• In the movie Sid and Nancy (1986), Sid and Nancy are seen exiting a subway towards Bleecker Street.
• The I Love Lucy episode entitled "Lucy and the Loving Cup" mentions Bleecker Street as Lucy's destination while traveling the subway.
• In the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy (1999), Sonny visits a laundrette on Bleecker.
• American television series "How to Make it in America" featured Bleecker Street signposts in it's opening song.

Music

• The Saint of Bleecker Street, an opera by American composer Gian Carlo Menotti, earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1955.
• Country Boy and Bleeker Street, a psychedelic rock song by Chicago band H. P. Lovecraft from their eponymous album H. P. Lovecraft (1967).
• Japanese pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki visited Bleecker Street during recording of her (Miss)understood album. The pictures were later published in Hamasaki's famous "Deji Deji Diary" that is published in each issue of ViVi Magazine.
• Folksinger Fred Neil sang about "standing on the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal, wondering which way to go" in the title song off his album Bleecker & MacDougal, released in 1965.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the Steely Dan song "Almost Gothic" from the album Two Against Nature.
• The Marcy Playground song "The Vampires of New York" mentions "All the whores on Bleecker Street".
• Simon and Garfunkel have a song titled "Bleecker Street" on their debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964).
• Bruce Springsteen, frequent visitor of the Bleecker Street club Cafe Wha?, says "Cat somehow lost his baby down on Bleecker Street" in his song "Kitty's Back" off his album The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.
• Willie Nile says "I'm down here on Bleecker Street tryin' to read your mind" in Cell Phones Ringing (In The Pockets Of The Dead) from his Streets of New York album.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Pearl" by Paula Cole on her 1999 album 'Amen'.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Punkrocker", featuring Iggy Pop, by The Teddybears.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Hots on for Nowhere" by Led Zeppelin.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "New Amsterdam" by the band Travis.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Myriad Harbour" by The New Pornographers.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the songs "Cindy's Cryin'" and "Phil" by Tom Paxton.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "What Do You Know About Love?" by Lloyd Cole.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Freight Train" by Peter, Paul and Mary.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Paris Nights/New York Mornings" by Corinne Bailey Rae.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Underground Town" by ska band The Toasters.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "New York Girls" (aka "Can You Dance the Polka") by British folk rock band Steeleye Span.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "40 Shades of Blue" by Irish-American New York folk rock band Black 47.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Tin Angel" by Joni Mitchell (on her 1969 album Clouds), and in her "Song for Sharon" from the album Hejira.
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "New York Girls" on the soundtrack and in the film, Gangs of New York, by Irish Singer Finbar Furey
• Bleecker Street is mentioned in the song "Mono to Stereo" by Fastball on their 2009 album Little White Lies.

Other references

• Bleecker Street is the name of a trail at Hunter Mountain.
• Bleecker Street is the name of a unisex fragrance by Bond No. 9 New York.
• COACH has a handbag collection named after the street.
• Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum is located at 177A Bleecker Street.
• The original San Remo Cafe, actually a bar and sometimes referred to as San Remo Bar, was at 189 Bleecker.
• First Gay Pride Parade organized from the apartment of march founder Craig Rodwell at 350 Bleecker Street, Apt 3V.
• Humorous web comic Alien Loves Predator features Bleecker Street in some episodes and also on an "ALP" T-Shirt.
• Ruehl No. 925 Mentioned Shirts, & Leather Merchandise After the Street

External links

Media related to Bleecker Street at Wikimedia Commons

• Forgotten New York
• New York Songlines: Bleecker Street
• John's of Bleecker Street