Designer Clothes and Punk Origins: Bleecker Street between Lafayette and the Bowery

The eastern edge of Bleecker Street, sometimes misspelled Bleeker Street, ends at the Bowery in the East Village. It used to be a skid row type of area, along with being very artistic. Now it is largely gentrified. 

At the eastern end of the Bowery intersection is a clothing store called Patagonia. Next to that is a designer clothing store, John Varvatos, which was the site of the famous music club CBGB from 1973 to 2006, generally considered to be where punk music originated. 

BRC is the Bowery Residents' Committee, which has been helping those in need since 1971. 

The Ramones are one of the famous acts closely associated with CBGB, and there is a mural, just across the intersection on Bleecker Street, of lead singer Joey Ramone. 

The former site of CBGB is straight ahead in the above photo, in the orange building across the street. By the way, CBGB stood for Country, Bluegrass, and Blues, which was the original intent of the club.

The mural was done by artists Solus and John 'Crash' Matos in 2015.

Solus tweeted about the boxing gloves on September 3, 2015:
"the gloves represent the struggle Joey and ramones endured 2 achieve success they performed 2263 times touring nonstop for 22 years"

Here's the Ramones performing at CBGB:


There are many nods inside the John Varvatos clothing store to the site's rock history. There are photos of artists on several walls and racks of albums near the entrance. There are also instruments set up on a stage area. Some of the walls seem to have been preserved from the CBGB days, with flyers and posters and scribble all over them, giving a definite punk club vibe. 

I was glad there were some indications of the site's past. I checked the price tag on a vintage t-shirt hanging nearby, and when I saw that it was $350, I decided it was time to leave before I accidentally broke or even brushed up against something. 

Here's a look at the intersection, facing east:

And facing west from the other side of the street:

The two corners at Bleecker and the Bowery have a restaurant called Saxon + Parole and a coffee joint called Think Coffee. Plus a message on the sidewalk.

I fudged out the full first word because this is a family blog, and I don't approve of that kind of language. But I agree with the overall message, even if I'm occasionally guilty of that myself. But I try not to be.

Here's some East Village funk in the form of graffiti. I liked the arched grating in the wall.

A pop-up sandwich place sounds hip, but in kind of a good way.

At 9 Bleecker Street is a boxing gym called Overthrow. 

There are free cards at the entrance with some tips:

Thanks for the free lesson, but such language on this block!

Some of the doors have boxing photos, including collages with current presidential candidates.

Just to the left of the door in the above photo is a work of street art by City Rabbit:

The building that now houses Overthrow boxing was the home of the countercultural Yippies for decades. 

Overthrow was the name of a publication related to the group.

Here's some more trendy clothing shops on the block!

Wow, there's really an oil tank under the sidewalk?

I liked the small plant in the window. It looked like a citrus plant but I'm not sure, I'm just a dilettante.

There are two theaters on the block: the Sheen Center, which actually has 2 theaters and other art space, and the Lynn Redgrave Theater, which currently features a show by Mike Birbiglia.

 There's also an art gallery called Zurcher:

And a little more East Village grime:

I liked the look of the front of this building below, especially those out-of-place bricks:

Between the Bowery and Lafayette Street, there are 3 side streets that begin at Bleecker and then run downtown. Furthest to the east is Elizabeth Street:

Then Mott Street:

And then Mulberry Street:

Mulberry Street actually comes close to merging with Lafayette as it reaches Bleecker, causing the building between the two streets to become quite thin in this area. In this photo, Lafayette is on the right and Mulberry is to the left:

At the thinnest part of that building, on the Lafayette Street side, is a sandwich place with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences called Bite.

On the Mulberry side was an interesting illustration.

Here's the intersection at Bleecker and Lafayette, looking west down Bleecker Street:

And looking back east where we just came from:

In a window of the last building on Bleecker before reaching Lafayette, I saw a sign for the website of Paper Tiger Television, which I learned is a nonprofit alternative media group located there.

Fortunately there is still some art on the block, to mix in with some of the high-end shops.

Even though much of Bleecker Street's folk music roots are further west from here, I thought I would still end my first post on the street with this Simon and Garfunkel song. I hope you like it: