Ludlow Street (Manhattan)
Encyclopedia
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, 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
The Living Room
The Living Room is a music venue on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side in New York City that was established in 1988. The Living Room is co-owned by Steve Rosenthal and Jennifer Gilson. The Living Room has showcased some of the best of New York City’s singer/songwriter, alt-country, and rock world...
, and Piano's, among its many other diversions.
1960 - 1990
As far back as 1962 Tony ConradTony Conrad
Tony Conrad is an American avant-garde video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician/composer, sound artist, teacher and writer...
, Theatre of Eternal Music
Theatre of Eternal Music
The Theatre of Eternal Music, sometimes later known as The Dream Syndicate, was a mid 1960s musical group formed by La Monte Young, that focused on experimental drone music. It featured the performances of La Monte Young, John Cale, Angus MacLise, Terry Jennings, Marian Zazeela, Tony Conrad, Billy...
member, lived and worked at 56 Ludlow and in 1965 Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
and Sterling Morrison
Sterling Morrison
Holmes Sterling Morrison, Jr. was one of the founding members of the rock group The Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and singing backing vocals.-Biography:...
of The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
lived and recorded there. The earliest known recorded version of All Tomorrow's Parties
All Tomorrow's Parties
"All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by The Velvet UndergroundAll Tomorrow's Parties may also refer to:* All Tomorrow's Parties , an annual festival in England...
was recorded there.
Tony Conrad has produced two CDs from the Jack Smith
Jack Smith (film director)
Jack Smith was an American filmmaker, actor, and pioneer of underground cinema...
tape archives subtitled 56 Ludlow Street that were recorded at 56 Ludlow Street between 1962 and 1964.
In the mid 1970s Gary Weis made some short films of Taylor Mead
Taylor Mead
Taylor Mead is an American writer, actor, and performer. Mead appeared in several of Andy Warhol's underground films including Tarzan and Jane Regained.....
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.
In the early 1980s Ludlow Street was well-known as a street where no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
Colab
Colab
Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines. Colab came together as a collective in 1977, and initially received an NEA Workshop Grant through Center for...
artists connected with ABC No Rio
ABC No Rio
ABC No Rio is a social center located at 156 Rivington Street on New York City's Lower East Side that was founded in 1980. It features a gallery space, a zine library, a darkroom, a silkscreening studio, and public computer lab...
lived; such as Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith is an American artist classified as a feminist artist, a movement with beginnings in the twentieth century...
. Other notables there at this time include Fab Five Freddy
Fab Five Freddy
Fred Brathwaite , more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American Hip hop historian, Hip hop pioneer and former graffiti artist...
, Tom Otterness
Tom Otterness
Tom Otterness is an American sculptor whose works adorn parks, plazas, subway stations, libraries, courthouses and museums in New York---most notably in Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City and in the 14th Street/8th Avenue subway station---and other cities around the world...
and George Condo
George Condo
George Condo is an American contemporary visual artist.-Life and career:Condo works in the medium of painting and sculpture...
.
From 1983 to 1989, the bimonthly cassette publication Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
was based out of 143 Ludlow Street.
In 1989 the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
used a photo of the southwest corner of Ludlow and Rivington Street as the cover for their album Paul's Boutique
Paul's Boutique
Paul's Boutique is the second studio album by American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on July 25, 1989, on Capitol Records. Featuring production by the Dust Brothers, the recording sessions for the album took place in Matt Dike's Apartment and the Record Plant in Los Angeles from 1988 to...
.
1990s
In the mid- to late 1990s, the increasing popularity of the area among hipstersHipster (contemporary subculture)
Hipsters are a subculture of young, recently settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with musical interests mainly in alternative rock that appeared in the 1990s...
, driven out of the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
by an invasion of yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
s, led to an upturn in activity along Ludlow Street, with several old establishments, such as corner delis (a.k.a. bodegas)
Bodega
Bodega is a Spanish word that may refer to:* a winery, wine cellar or wine bar* a convenience store specializing in Hispanic groceriesPlaces:* Bodega, California, town in Sonoma County, California...
closing shop to make way for bar
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
s, music venue
Music venue
A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Typically, different types of venues host different genres of music...
s such as the Ludlow Street Bar & Grill (a basement restaurant and music venue), and alternative theatres
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
such as Collective:Unconscious Theater
Collective: Unconscious
Collective:Unconscious is a non-profit corporation, founded in New York City in 1994, and incorporated in 1995. Originally based on Ludlow Street on New York's Lower East Side, in 2004 it relocated to Tribeca until July 2008....
(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 DeliKatz's Deli
Katz's Delicatessen, also known as simply Katz's of New York City, is a kosher-style delicatessen restaurant located at 205 E...
, which is one of the city's most famous delicatessen
Delicatessen
Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....
s, Ludlow Street Guitars, Earthmatters Cafe (hangout of musicians/actors/writers/techies), newly re-opened Ludlow Studio, which was home to some of the top recording artists in the mid 1990s, and the Sombrero Mexican restaurant, better known to a generation of musicians as "The Hat." The art and cultural gallery Ludlow 38 is the downtown satellite for contemporary art of the Goethe-Institut
Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
New York. The space was designed by artists Ethan Breckenridge and Liam Gillick
Liam Gillick
Liam Gillick is a British conceptual artist who lives in New York City. He is often associated with the artists included the 1996 exhibit Traffic, which first introduced the term Relational Art.-Life and career:...
.
In 2005 artist Wolfgang Staehle
Wolfgang Staehle
Wolfgang Staehle is an early pioneer of net.art in the United States, known for his video streaming of the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.-Education:...
created One day of life on Ludlow Street (New York). The work consists of 6716 images (jpgs, resolution 1200x1600) displayed in approximately 8 second intervals over 24 hours (10/07/2005). Colab
Colab
Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines. Colab came together as a collective in 1977, and initially received an NEA Workshop Grant through Center for...
activist and experimental filmmaker Coleen Fitzgibbon made in 1980 a video called Ludlow about Ludlow Street.
From south to north, Ludlow starts from Division Street, intersects Canal Street
Canal Street (Manhattan)
Canal Street is a major street in New York City, crossing lower Manhattan to join New Jersey in the west to Brooklyn in the east . It forms the main spine of Chinatown, and separates it from Little Italy...
, Hester Street, Grand Street
Grand Street (Manhattan)
Grand Street is a street in Manhattan, New York City. It runs east-west parallel to and south of Delancey Street, from SoHo through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side to the East River....
, Broome Street, Delancey Street
Delancey Street (Manhattan)
Delancey Street is one of the main thoroughfares of Manhattan's Lower East Side, running east from the Bowery to connect to the Williamsburg Bridge to Brooklyn. It is an eight-lane, median-divided street....
, Rivington Street
Rivington Street (Manhattan)
Rivington Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which runs across the Lower East Side neighborhood, between Bowery and Pitt Street, with a break between Chrystie and Forsyth for Sara D. Roosevelt Park...
and Stanton Street, and ends at Houston Street.
Ludlow Street in Popular Culture
- Suzanne VegaSuzanne VegaSuzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
's song, Ludlow Street, from the 2007 album Beauty and Crime - The Julian CasablancasJulian CasablancasJulian Fernando Casablancas is an American singer-songwriter and musician of The Strokes. Casablancas pursued a solo career during The Strokes' hiatus, releasing the album Phrazes for the Young on November 3, 2009....
album Phrazes for the YoungPhrazes for the YoungPhrazes for the Young is the debut solo album by American songwriter Julian Casablancas, released on November 2, 2009 in the UK and November 3 in the US. Casablancas, who is best known for being the front man of New York rock band The Strokes, recorded the eight-song album in 2009 in New York, Los...
includes a song titled Ludlow St. - The AaRONAaRONAaRON ' is a French pop rock musical duo, consisting of Simon Buret and Olivier Coursier. Their debut album Artificial Animals Riding On Neverland was released in 2007 and made them popular in France and Europe...
album Birds in the Storm includes a song titled Ludlow L - The Beastie BoysBeastie BoysBeastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
1989 album Paul's BoutiquePaul's BoutiquePaul's Boutique is the second studio album by American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on July 25, 1989, on Capitol Records. Featuring production by the Dust Brothers, the recording sessions for the album took place in Matt Dike's Apartment and the Record Plant in Los Angeles from 1988 to...
features a panoramic photograph of Ludlow Street on the cover - The Digable PlanetsDigable PlanetsDigable Planets is an American alternative hip hop trio based in New York City, composed of Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler , Mary Ann "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving . They released their debut album Reachin' in 1993, and their follow-up album Blowout Comb in 1994...
included a reference to Ludlow Street in their hip-hop song Time And Space ("from 125 right down to ludlow") on their 1993 album Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)Reachin is the debut album by alternative hip hop group Digable Planets. It was released on September 27, 1993, by Pendulum/Elektra Records. The album was produced solely by Digable Planets' Butterfly and features raps by each of the group's members. There are no guest performers on Reachin, but... - New York-based artist JaymayJaymayJamie Seerman is an American folk singer-songwriter from New York. She performs under the name Jaymay.-Biography:Jaymay was born on January 3, 1981, and was raised on Long Island...
mentions Ludlow Street in her song "You'd Rather Run" on her album Autumn Fallin'Autumn Fallin'Autumn Fallin' is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Jaymay. It was released on 12 November 2007.The track Sea Green, See Blue was used in the 2010 film The Switch, and the second season finale of the TV series How I Met Your Mother.-Track listing:# "Gray Or Blue" - 3:24# "Sycamore... - In the song, Clinton St. Girl by the Indie band Wakey!Wakey!, "Ludlow Street boys" are frequently mentioned throughout the chorus.
Reference texts
- Carlo McCormickCarlo McCormickCarlo McCormick is a culture critic and curator living in New York City. He is the author of numerous books, monographs and catalogues on contemporary art and artists.-Pedagogic Activity:...
, "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 SideLower East SideThe Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
Art Gallery, Collaborative Projects, NY, 1985 - Steven Watson, Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties, Pantheon, New York, 2003
1974
External links
- Ludlow Street Storefronts - photographs of buildings and stores along Ludlow Street.
- Ludlow 38 of the Goethe-Institut New York