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St. Marks Place Review

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St. Marks Place

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Category: Neighborhoods/Streets
Location: East Village and the Lower East Side

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Fodor's Review:

The longtime hub of the edgy East Village, St. Marks Place is the name given to idiosyncratic East 8th Street between 3rd Avenue and Avenue A. During the 1950s, beatniks Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac lived and wrote in the area; the 1960s brought Bill Graham's Fillmore East, Andy Warhol's the Dom, the Electric Circus nightclub, and hallucinogenic drugs. The studded, pink-haired and shaved-head punk scene followed, continuing today along with pierced rockers and teenage Goths. The blocks between 2nd and 3rd avenues have time-tested alternative-clothing boutiques and Asian restaurants galore. At 80 St. Marks Place, near 1st Avenue, is the Pearl Theatre Company, which performs classic plays from around the world. The handprints, footprints, and autographs of such past screen luminaries as Joan Crawford, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, and Myrna Loy lie in its sidewalk. At 96-98 St. Marks Place (between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) stands the building that was photographed for the cover of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album. The cafés between 2nd Avenue and Avenue A attract customers late into the night.