The Alley Project

 Since my life has kept me away from the alleys lately, I’m going to let Guy Maddin take over this week. Here’s his brilliant take on the back streets of Winnipeg.

(Ignore the "Dowload Video" link. It doesn’t seem to work.)

I hate to deviate from the central purpose of this site (dealing with legitimate alleys and not figurative ones) but this seemed too important to pass up.
Tin Pan Alley, a particular collection of buildings along W. 28th Street in New York City, housed a good portion of the most influential and successful music publishers and [...]

Harvelle’s is the oldest music venue in Santa Monica, open since 1931. It’s likely that the crowd has stayed perpetually young, most of them now unable to conceive of the 1930’s when dinosaurs waked the earth and music was played on a harpsicord. 
 
I met up with a friend here for a quick drink before beginning [...]

There are two ways into The Irish Bank that I know of. I picked the one lined with endless garbage bins and sketchy people.
The Irish Bank used to be called the Bank of Ireland (there are plenty of signs inside to prove it) but word on the street is that the actual Bank of Ireland [...]

[I'm going to make "tucked away" the official starting phrase of every post from now until eternity.]
Tucked away in an alley called Camac Street (our first palindromic alley!) in downtown Philadelphia lies an artificially old-looking Inn that is actually simply a nice old-fashioned gay bar called The Venture Inn. Despite the artificiality of some of [...]

After straddling the zero degree line at the Greenwich Observatory and existing in both hemispheres at the same time, there’s nothing like a stroll in downtown Greenwich to remind you of which hemisphere is still on top. The alley above leads to the lovely Greenwich market area which was actually shutting down when we arrived.
I [...]

 I found this alley mural and graffiti next to Saffron Restaurant on Brick Lane. If you were able to see up and just a bit to the right, you’d see the spire of Christ Church Spitalfields, the "Devil’s Church".

 
 
 
Here’s a classic London alley (there was even a hidden little pub in the middle but I [...]

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese has one of those names that only a Brit could say without having a mixed metaphor pop into their heads. The interior is an amazing maze of small rooms and interlocking bars. The stairwell to the loo is built for midgets, but the cottage pie and mashed peas is excellent. Waking [...]

 
There are so many alleys in London and of such variety that it makes an alley-lover like myself re-assess what it is that he, she, or it loves about these spaces. See above for examples of what I’m not looking for.
As attractive as these little lanes are, there’s no intrigue. Like the new-ish pub we [...]

McGillin’s Old Ale House (someone forgot the "e" on the end of "Old") is supposedly the oldest continuously running bar in Philadelphia proper. It has retained a lot of the old world charm and has matured out of its former "peanut shells on the floor" paradigm.
After a couple of beers, my dad and I hoofed [...]