east village visitors centerOfficial tours of the
East Village Visitors Center
LESHP is proudly partnered with:
lower east side walking tours
LESHP.org - Lower East Side New York City

new york city tour schedule

Join our licensed, native NY educators on a journey you will never forget.

RSVPTOUR RESERVATIONS
Saturdays
12:00pm - East Village
2:00pm - Gangsters
Sundays
Mondays
12:00pm - The Bowery
2:00pm - Alphabet City
Tuesdays
12:00pm - Lower East Side
2:00pm - Gangsters
3:30pm - Sacred Spaces (monthly)
Wednesdays
12:00pm - East Village
2:00pm - Fourth Ward
Thursdays
12:00pm - Lower East Side
2:00pm - Beat Literature
Fridays
12:00pm - Lower East Side 

lower east side, nyc walking tours

The Lower East Side History Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to researching, documenting and preserving the history of the greater Lower East Side of New York City.

"...A must do" - Frommer's  |  "Top 5 in NYC..." - Time Out New York  |  "You will be amazed..." - NBC  |  "A wealth of insight..." - About.com  |  "Every trip to NYC should include a tour..." - Suzy Guides  Our guides are:
  • Professional historians & educators
  • Native New Yorkers
  • Licensed by the City of NY
  • Active community members


Lower East Side Walking Tour

Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays  @ 12:00pm - $15
This one-of-a-kind tour of the LES highlights all aspects of our neighborhood's rich diversity by providing an introduction to the many distinct populations -- Native-American, African, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Hispanic, and others -- which influenced the character of the Lower East Side over the last thousand years.


 
Gangsters: Birth of Organized Crime

Saturdays and Tuesdays @ 2:00pm - $25
gangster tourThis exciting and popular walking tour covers 150 years of crime and vice in NYC. Trace the steps of criminal legends like Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel -- who earned their criminal stripes on the streets of the Lower East Side -- and explore the roots of organized crime in America.


 
Fourth Ward/Two Bridges

Wednesdays @ 2:00pm - $15
Fourth ward - two bridges tourThe Fourth Ward, today known as the "Two Bridges" neighborhood, was a rough, working-class, waterfront district which neighbored the infamous Five Points in the 19th century. Once one of the poorest and most hazardous slums in NYC, the neighborhood today still retains much of the grittiness and vibrancy of old-fashioned NYC, as gentrification has yet to overwhelm the area.


 
East Village Walking Tour

Saturdays & Wednesdays @ 12:00pm - $15
East VillageThis is a crash course in East Village/Lower East Side history. From the farmlands of the 1600s and the wealthy estates of the 1700s, to immigration, tenements, the "melting pot" and how the East Village became a haven for artists and counter culturalists in the twentieth century (and everything in between). 


 
East Village Sacred Spaces

First Tuesday of each month @ 3:30pm
sacred spaces tourAt one time no other place on earth was so densely populated with such religious and cultural diversity as NYC's Lower East Side. Here not only tolerance was developed, but as successive waves of our cultural centers: synagogues, churches, temples and mosques of all denominations and national origins...


 
Chinatown/Five Points

Sundays @ 2:00pm - $15
ChinatownNew York's legendary slum, a story of Irish, Italians, Africans, Germans, Jews and Chinese, their struggles, their cultures; gangs of New York to the tongs of Chinatown -- with underground passageways still in use on winding Blood Alley where countless gang members were murdered in half a century of turf warfare...


 
Bowery

Mondays @ 12:00pm - $15
boweryThe Bowery is not just the oldest and most architecturally diverse thoroughfares in NYC, it is one of most historically significant streets in the country. Beyond the myths, legends and gritty reputation, the Bowery offers an absolute treasure trove of NYC  and American history.


 
Beat Writers & Poets

Thursdays @ 2:00pm  - $15
Beat poetsPost WWII America brought a new wave of artists, students, intellectuals and freethinkers to the Lower East Side. The radical and countercultural spirit of the predominantly immigrant, working-class neighborhood inspired new art forms in literature, music, performing arts. On this tour explore the homes, hangouts and galleries which defined a generation.


 
Alphabet City

Mondays @ 2:00pm - $15
Alphabet CityOnce the godforsaken broken heart of the ghetto, the most densely populated square mile on the face of the earth, built over an industrial wasteland, then abandoned to a wild mix of marginal artists, angry anarchists, gangs, dealers, excons and thieves, against a backdrop of urban blight, tenements burned to rubble and danger on every corner...


 

LES Gangster Book

GMW
"A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side"

BOOK INFO

 

Membership

Free tours, local discounts, 100% tax-deductible!

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