The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it was understood to encompass a much larger area, from Broadway to the East River and from East 14th Street to Fulton and Franklin Streets.
The corner of Orchard and Rivington Streets in the Lower East Side in 2005
Tenement buildings on the Lower East Side
The Lower East Side in the early 1900s
The Lower East Side and Lower Manhattan skyline photographed using Agfacolor in 1938.
The Bowery is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north. The eponymous neighborhood runs roughly from the Bowery east to Allen Street and First Avenue, and from Canal Street north to Cooper Square/East Fourth Street. The neighborhood roughly overlaps with Little Australia. To the south is Chinatown, to the east are the Lower East Side and the East Village, and to the west are Little Italy and NoHo. It has historically been considered a part of the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Looking north from Houston Street
Looking north from Grand Street, showing the tracks of the Third Avenue Elevated, c. 1910
The Bull's Head Tavern in the Bowery, 1801 – c. 1860
Berenice Abbott photograph of a Bowery restaurant in 1935, when the street was lined with flophouses