It's no secret that the area south of Houston Street in Lower Manhattan, which went from manufacturing to artists' living, has by now given way completely to gentrification. Gone are the dark & gritty streets, the dive bars, the affordably expansive lofts. Here, from Martin Scorsese's 1985 film After Hours are some of the last views of a neighborhood that's changed perhaps more than any other in NYC over the last 20+ years.
Corner of Crosby & Howard, where Griffin Dunne's hapless office worker begins his crazy night downtown.
The loft where he visits nutty pick-up Roseanne Arquette is at 28 Howard Street.
Gone are the days when an enormous loft could be affordable to an aspiring artist who would willingly furnish it with plastic sheeting for partitions and bare lightbulbs.
The River Diner was actually up 11th Avenue at 37th Street. (Now demolished.)
Back in SoHo - more empty streets, since taken over entirely by luxury retail, chain-stores & euro-trash restaurants & bars.
The "Terminal Bar" was on Spring & Renwick Streets. It's now an ersatz "Irish Pub".
A "Jil Sander" boutique can now be found on the right, "De Vera" on the right.
The "Club Berlin" was at 289 Hudson, now a deli.
Somehow, the piles of garbage still remain.
