An East Side Sanctuary: Tudor City Greens

The other day I overheard a guy complaining and arguing with someone about noise pollution, and I couldn't help but wonder: Does that count as noise pollution? As we mull over that philosophical question, let's start the post...

I've mentioned before how I've discovered so many new places in New York from writing this blog, and Tudor City Greens is another example. Although I get the sneaking suspicion that other New Yorkers know about these places, and I'm just hopelessly unaware as I stay in the same three-block area and go to my usual food joints. When I mention to someone a new block or area that I recently discovered while writing this blog, the response is often something like, "Oh yeah, I know about that place." Okay then. I guess I'm just out of it.

It's a cliche about New Yorkers that we often tend to stay in our own little neighborhood, or even neighborhood within the neighborhood, but it's actually mostly true for me! At least I'm trying to change that with this blog. If I can do it, anyone can.

I recently came across a mention of the Tudor City Greens in a book by William Powers called New Slow City: Living Simply in the World's Fastest City. It's an inspirational book on an important topic. In it he mentions how his wife works at the United Nations and finds solace in her day at the nearby Tudor City Greens, a sanctuary that offers some important relaxation time. 

Since I'm an unaware dodo, when I read his mention of Tudor City Greens, I was like Huh? So I Googled it and sure enough, there it was on the east side of Manhattan, near the United Nations and everything. 

I guess if I were going to defend my lack of awareness in this case, it would be that it's a bit tough to get to the east side in general, with there being only one subway line there and all. Also, the United Nations area is one I consider it best to avoid because of all the traffic it seems to cause, and because I don't really know what other things there are to do there. And thirdly, the east side in the low 40's is really midtown, not downtown. But I still think I should've heard of Tudor City at some point, and I'm okay with writing about it in a 'downtown' blog because I'm all about expanding horizons... and areas that I can write about.

Anyway now I know about the Tudor City Greens, and how it is definitely a nice thing to do in this area! Join me on my journey of discovery, won't you?

The Greens in Tudor City run along Tudor City Place, which is an elevated street running parallel to the avenues, near 1st and between 40th and 43rd Streets.

It used to be inconvenient getting all the way to the east side, but fortunately I could just take the 2nd Avenue subway and I was less than a block away. I'm joking of course, I had to take the 6 train to Grand Central and then walk east along 42nd Street for several avenues. 

While I was still a couple of blocks away I saw a promising sign from up high:

After seeing that I felt pretty confident that I was headed in the right direction. I wish all my destinations had huge signs like that. It's very reassuring. 

On 42nd Street between 2nd and 1st there are stairs on either side that lead up to Tudor City. 

The bridge in the photo that crosses 42nd is part of Tudor City Place. 

The first thing each set of stairs leads to is a playground. On the southern side of the street it's Tudor Grove Playground. 

As you can see, that sign is actually just along the stairs that lead to the playground. Here's a better view:

A nice thing about Tudor City is that its green spaces mix in well with the surrounding buildings, which despite some of their sizes are not really overpowering.

Here's a view from the top of the stairs near the playground, looking east at the Tudor City Place bridge and part of the blue-green United Nations Headquarters in the background.

The bridge area gives some nice views, including the Chrysler Building to the west and the East River to the... well, east.

Along with the water, the east side also gives a better view of the U.N. building. 

I was wondering why it said Long Island across the water, but I believe it's because that area is Long Island City, which is in Queens. 

Standing and facing east along the bridge, the building just to the right had some nice stained glass windows at the bridge level.

I don't know if there's any significance to the windows, but I liked them. It's the little things in a neighborhood that can add up to a very pleasant place.

Let's turn back south and look at the Greens that are along Tudor City Place between 42nd and 41st. Here are a couple of views from the 42nd Street bridge area:

The entrance is between 41st and 42nd.

A sign inside had some rules and explained that the Greens are actually privately owned:

There was also a small plaque about Tudor City nearby, explaining how its origins go back to the 1920's:

According to the NYC Parks Department, Tudor City was built using the Garden City notion, which seeks to combine rural and urban, especially by mixing in green spaces into city life. The Tudor name originates from the idea of invoking the glory of the Tudor Dynasty of England. Needless to say, this seems to be a rather upscale neighborhood. 

And if you ask me, nothing says upscale and classy like lanterns. There were two very nice restored lanterns just inside the entrance.

The park had lots of benches and seats, including many available ones to sit and take in the nice plants and flowers nearby, along with the relative quiet.

There was still some street noise to be heard but much of it was drowned out, which made for a very relaxing place to sit and ponder. And occasionally check my phone.

If you're wondering what books are, they're like blog posts but longer and with fewer photos. I know, they sound awful.

Here's a look at the southern corner of this park, at 41st and Tudor City Place:

Looking east from this corner, there is another place to view the very eastern side of Manhattan:

Just south of the U.N. building is the Robert Moses Playground. Underneath this area is also where the Queens Midtown Tunnel crosses the river. 

Looking south from the previously mentioned corner, you can see where Tudor City Place reaches a dead end and overlooks some of the city below. 

When I said 'overlooks some of the city below' I was of course referring to a loud construction site. I think they should just rename the city Under Construction. It's ridiculous. As Billy Crystal recently quipped on The Tonight Show, the city is going to look great when it's done. Indeed.

I said in an earlier blog post that I would try to limit complaining about construction, but I couldn't help myself. Okay, back to Tudor City. 

Now let's look at the northern park, between 42nd and 43rd.

There was a birdbath that was rather crowded when I got there.

As you can see, the pigeons didn't seem pleased with the little bird being there and seemed to be shooting it some dirty looks. The little guy flew away a moment later and the pigeons had it to themselves.

Another example of how cruel nature can be.

I saw another bird hopping around nearby. 

This may be a random thought, but I can see in that photo how birds really seem like a type of dinosaur. 

Are you wondering if I saw any squirrels? Yes I did.

And some more nice plants:

There was also an old restored lamppost that was credited to the same woman as the two restored lanterns in the other park:

I also got a closer view of the Tudor City sign from this park:

 43rd Street continues east a little bit past Tudor City Place until it reaches Ralph Bunche Park and the Isaiah Wall across from the U.N. building.

I think it's good to have a message of peace near the United Nations. Ralph Bunche was the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize, winning it in 1950 for mediation work he did in Israel. He was also involved in the early years of the U.N. 

Here is a look back west from this area of 43rd Street:

On my way out of Tudor City I walked back to 42nd and Tudor City Place, and walked down on the north side of the street, past the other playground.

I just took a photo of the sign because the playground was full of kids at the time. Mary O'Connor lived in Tudor City and was an activist in the community, especially fighting against commercial development. She was involved in Tudor City getting Landmark Designation. 

I went down the steps and was back on 42nd Street, but glad that I now knew about this somewhat secluded neighborhood that offered a bit of a midtown green retreat. 

I took one more look up at some of the Tudor City buildings and wanted to get a closeup of the nice artwork atop one of them.

I believe it says Veritas in the center area. So much work goes into those kinds of artistic building details, much of it high up and unseen by most people. It seems like a shame. At least we can zoom in these days on cameras and phones.

I really enjoyed my visit to Tudor City. I wish I had learned of it sooner but at least now I know, and I can appreciate that much more of the city and what it has to offer.