Ludlow Street runs between Houston and Division Streets on the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, an important cultural street rich with history.
It is a destination street for musicians and music-lovers, and is heavily populated with fashion shops, art galleries, bars, restaurants, and clubs. Ludlow Street currently houses the performance venues Cake Shop, The Living Room, and Piano's, among its many other diversions.
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History
1960 - 1990
As far back as 1963 Tony Conrad, Theatre of Eternal Music member, lived and worked at 56 Ludlow [1] and in 1965 Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison of The Velvet Underground lived and recorded there.
In the mid 1970s Gary Weis made some short films of Taylor Mead talking to his cat in the kitchen of his Ludlow Street apartment called "Taylor Mead's Cat." From 1980 to the mid-80s actor/videomaker Craig Calman lived in the building adjoining Taylor Mead's.[2]
In the early 1980s Ludlow Street was well-known as a street where no wave Colab artists lived.[3]
In 1989 the Beastie Boys used a photo of the southwest corner of Ludlow and Rivington Street as the cover for their album Paul's Boutique.[4]
1990's
In the mid- to late 1990s, the increasing popularity of the area among hipsters, driven out of the East Village by an invasion of yuppies, led to an upturn in activity along Ludlow Street, with several old establishments, such as corner delis (a.k.a. bodegas) closing shop to make way for bars, music venues such as the Ludlow Street Bar & Grill (a basement restaurant and music venue), and alternative theatres such as Collective:Unconscious Theater (before it became an empty lot), Piano's Theater (before it became a music venue and bar), and Todo Con Nada (before it became The Dark Room).
Today
Since then it has become a small nightlife strip featuring bars and venues with a distinct subcultural flavor. Local institutions still present, including the bistro/cafe Pink Pony, the adjacent artist bar Max Fish, Katz's Deli, which is one of the city's most famous delicatessens, Ludlow Street Guitars, and the Sombrero Mexican restaurant, better known to a generation of musicians as "The Hat."
From south to north, Ludlow starts from Division Street, intersects Canal Street, Hester Street, Grand Street, Broome Street, Delancey Street, Rivington Street and Stanton Street, and ends at Houston Street.
Ludlow Street in Popular Culture
- Suzanne Vega's song, Ludlow Street, from the 2007 album "Beauty and Crime"
- The Julian Casablancas album Phrazes for the Young includes a song titled "Ludlow St."
References
- ^ Steven Watson, Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties, Pantheon, New York, 2003, p. 157
- ^ [1] Dan Glass, "Taylor Mead, Superstar:The Life and Times of a Downtown Legend"
- ^ Carlo McCormick, "The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984", Princeton University Press, 2006
- ^ NYC Album Art: Paul's Boutique, accessed April 26, 2007. "According to the album, Paul's Boutique is in Brooklyn...but we all know this photo was taken in the Lower East Side. With a Paul's Boutique sign hanging up on the Lee's Sportswear storefront, the shot was taken at 99 Rivington Street, where Rivington and Ludlow intersect."
Reference texts
- Carlo McCormick, "The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984", Princeton University Press, 2006
- Alan Moore and Marc Miller, eds., ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery, Collaborative Projects, NY, 1985
- Steven Watson, Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties, Pantheon, New York, 2003
External links
- Ludlow Street Storefronts - photographs of buildings and stores along Ludlow Street.
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