It’s a colorful and curious name for a 19th century alley, isn’t it?
Perhaps this tiny lane—which starts on the north side of Bleecker Street east of Lafayette Street and ends about 50 feet later—was a rough place where you got your shins kicked in.
Maybe it was the dumping ground for animal bones. [In 1934, photo from the NYPL digital collection]
In any event, it was laid out in 1825, according to a 1957 New York Times article, and in apparently was more substantial back then.
“It winds northward from between 41 and 43 Bleecker Street, and turns westward and again northward, coming out at 1 Bond Street and then on to Great Jones Street,” explains another Times article, from 1897.
“The alley is paved and flagged, and has for years, after nightfall, been the haunt of a crowd of idle young fellows, who give the police a good deal of concern.”
[Shinbone Alley today, now just a driveway ending at the back of Bond Street. Paved with Belgian blocks though.]
Tags: 19th century New York City, Alleys of Lower Manhattan, Bleecker Street in the 19th Century, Great Jones Street, Jones Alley, Shinbone Alley
Ephemeral New York 
July 25, 2010 at 5:41 am |
You left out the connection to archy and mehitabel!
July 26, 2010 at 5:28 pm |
[…] look at Shinbone Alley on Lafayette, just north of Bleecker [Ephemeral […]
August 4, 2011 at 4:20 am |
[…] Shinbone Alley […]
February 4, 2012 at 12:59 am |
I worked in the area in 1946 and passed shinbone going to work, Just had to look it up again thanks for the info and photgraphs.Ed Koster
March 1, 2012 at 10:53 am |
I was also searching “Shinbone Alley”. Thank you for the photos. But, I have not seen a reference to “Blue eyed Sally, she lives way down on Shinbone Alley” from Bob Wills’ song; “Stay All Night, (Stay a Little Longer”)
October 17, 2012 at 1:01 am |
In the Spike Lee movie, “Mo’ Better Blues”, according to IMBD, the scene where Spike Lee and Denzel Washington are brutally assaulted by Samuel L. Jackson and the other bookie’s collector, was shot in Shinbone Alley. It appears that the nightclub scenes were shot in the Cherry Lane Theater on Commerce Street in the West Village. Know the street grid pretty well (used to be an inspector for the city with respect to buildings), but had to look up Shinbone Alley on this site through the internet, because had never heard of it, even though it turns out I walked by it a million times.
June 4, 2018 at 4:38 pm |
Anyone have pix of shinbone alley from bleeker 20 or more years ago? My grandfather had a machine shop at 37 bleeker with a sign in the alley.
April 20, 2023 at 10:35 am |
Love all this esoteric info.. I was born in NYC and lived in Brooklyn as a child. I miss the city…and want to start doing walking tours.. I want to start on the Lower East Side. There is no place in the world like New York. Thanks for the photos and history.
March 9, 2024 at 4:05 pm |
The song Bully in the Alley is set in Shinbone Alley, called Shinbone *Al* to fit the tune. Bully was apparently slang for being drunk at some point.
March 11, 2024 at 1:11 am |
The inimitable Eartha Kitt played Mehitabel in the show “Shinbone Alley”, where she and Archie, the poetic cockroach, lived. The books are a pleasure to read.