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Lou Reed in black and white, curly dark hair, open dark shirt, holding a prop pistol upright
Lou Reed by Mick Rock for Arista Records, January 1977. Mick Rock for Arista Records · Public domain
A young woman in a red shirt holding a black violin and a white violin in a bare studio
Laurie Anderson, by Bernard Gotfryd, 1975–85. Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain

Borrower’s cardFreeport · Syracuse · London · New York

Lou ReedHis solo life, place by place: from a Long Island school band to the library that keeps his tapes

In 2019 the New York Public Library issued 6,000 library cards with his photograph on them. This page is one of those cards. Stamp a date for each place, then go and stand there.

Ink the stamp ↓
Sources

Library for the Performing Arts · March 2019

Stamp the card.

To mark the opening the library issued 6,000 limited-edition library cards with Mick Rock’s photograph of Reed, sold only at the first-floor circulation desk. Ink the stamp and press a due date for each place. The ink runs dry every 3 lines.

Sources

PlaceDate due

  6. Due back: Lincoln Center—

Ink left: 0 of 3

The stamp is dry. Ink it on the pad.

A grey-shingled boat sales building on a waterfront street with a motorcycle passing
The head of the Nautical Mile, Woodcleft Avenue, Freeport, Long Island, 2012. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0

1958 · Woodcleft Avenue, Freeport, Long Island

The Nautical Mile, Freeport

A black and white school portrait of a teenage boy with a dark quiff, jacket and tie
Lewis Reed in the Freeport High School yearbook, 1959. Freeport High School · Public domain

In his last two years of high school he played guitar and sang in several groups. The best known was the Shades, with his classmates Alan Walters and Phil Harris. The producer Bob Shad saw them at a talent show and signed them to Time Records, where they became the Jades. Reed was 16.

In 1953 Reed’s parents moved the family from Brooklyn to Freeport. The Lou Reed Archive starts with the Shades in 1958, and keeps two of his Freeport High School yearbooks, from 1958 and 1959. He graduated from Freeport High School in 1959.

Three days after he died, Freeport held a candlelight vigil and a memorial lunch at Hudsons on the Mile, on Woodcleft Avenue. A message from his sister said that, however he felt about Long Island, he still thought of Freeport as home.

Walk Woodcleft Avenue, the Nautical Mile, along the canal.

Sources

275 Pentonville Road · 14 July 1972

Ring the frame.

Lou Reed played his first UK show at the King’s Cross Cinema, now Scala, on 14 July 1972. Iggy Pop and the Stooges played the next night. The two nights were tied to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour, and Bowie brought the photographer Mick Rock in. These frames are drawn, not his photographs: ring one in grease pencil and see which cover its night gave.

14 JUL 72 · KING’S CROSS CINEMA

15 JUL 72 · KING’S CROSS CINEMA

Two strips, two nights. Ring a frame.

  1. Two nightsRock was there both nights. His photographs became the covers of Transformer and Raw Power.
  2. That’s the coverRing a frame from the 14th.
  3. The next nightRing a frame from the 15th.
Sources
A round blue plaque naming Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Mick Rock, Transformer and Raw Power
The blue plaque at Scala for Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Mick Rock, put up on 14 July 2022. Spudgun67 · CC BY-SA 4.0
A white Edwardian corner building with a domed tower, seen from the street on a sunny day
Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, from the King’s Cross Bridge side, 2022. The blue plaque is on this wall. Spudgun67 · CC BY-SA 4.0

A working club and gig venue. See the blue plaque from the street, or go in for a show.

Scala

Gigs at Scala

275 Pentonville Road, London

The old King’s Cross Cinema is still a working venue, with shows most nights; The Clockworks play on 16 October and Jim Jones All Stars on 18 October.

See what’s on

15 West 4th Street · 17–21 May 1978

Set the heads.

Reed booked five nights in a row here, 17 to 21 May 1978, to record a live album. The shows were taped binaurally, on two dummy human heads with microphones in their ears. Slide each head to where it stood.

Lou Reed in a black waistcoat singing and playing a yellow guitar under stage light
Lou Reed on stage in 2007, nearly thirty years after the Bottom Line nights. annulla from Brooklyn, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0

Front head at 5 ft; back head at 30 ft.

A tall pale stone 1900 building with arched upper windows on a Manhattan street corner
19 West 4th Street at Mercer Street, Greenwich Village. The Bottom Line was at the 15 West 4th Street corner. Beyond My Ken · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Bottom Line opened at 15 West 4th Street on 12 February 1974 and closed on 22 January 2004.

It held about 400 people. Sets ran long, some close to four hours, with long stretches of talk between songs.

Set both heads to hear how the album was made.

The club has gone. Stand at the corner of West 4th and Mercer Streets.

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Chen style · Master Ren GuangYi · 3 August 2019

Move slowly.

Master Ren GuangYi, Reed’s teacher for more than 12 years, led the main demonstration. Reed practised Chen style with him. Among them are manuscripts, poetry, handwritten tai chi notes, tour itineraries, fan mail and more than 10,000 of his own photographs. Press and draw across the field. Only a slow hand moves the line on.

Sources

The button moves the line on too, but only if you wait a moment between presses.

Still. Press and draw slowly across the field.

The tall pale stone front of the Central Library with long vertical windows
The front of the Central Library, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, 2022. MainlyTwelve · CC BY-SA 4.0

3 August 2019 · 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn

Central Library, Brooklyn

On 3 August 2019 Brooklyn Public Library held the first International Lou Reed Tai Chi Day at its Central Library, with Laurie Anderson.

It began with half an hour of meditation in the lobby at 8.30am, then demonstrations on the library plaza. Before the day the library showed a selection of Reed’s tai chi books, films and weapons, the first time they had been seen in public. No experience was needed to join in.

A public library. Stand on the plaza in front of the doors.

Sources
A crowd on a lawn at dusk in front of a lit outdoor stage strung with lights
A summer show at the Lena Horne Bandshell, Prospect Park, 2022. BailieSchaefer · CC BY-SA 4.0

3 August 2019 · Prospect Park, Brooklyn

Prospect Park Bandshell

That evening Tai Chi Day moved to the Prospect Park Bandshell, as part of BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn! festival.

Ren GuangYi and other practitioners showed Chen style forms to Drones, a sound work made from Reed’s guitar feedback, with Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, Sarth Calhoun and Stewart Hurwood. A screening of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon followed.

An open-air stage in Prospect Park, used for summer shows.

Sources
A white shell-shaped bandshell on a paved plaza, with apartment towers behind
The Guggenheim Bandshell in Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center, 2015. Giorgio Galeotti · CC BY 4.0

30 July 2016 · West 62nd Street, Lincoln Center

Damrosch Park

On 30 July 2016 Laurie Anderson and Hal Willner curated The Bells, a day-long celebration of Reed for Lincoln Center Out of Doors.

Master Ren Guangyi, Reed’s teacher, led a tai chi lesson in the middle of Lincoln Center. Anderson’s three-hour feedback piece, Lou Reed: Drones, ran during the day, with readings of his words and films including Julian Schnabel’s Berlin. The day ended with a concert in Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center’s outdoor bandshell area.

An open park at the south end of Lincoln Center, by the bandshell.

Sources

She wrote that he died doing the 21 form of tai chi, with only his hands moving.

Laurie Anderson wrote Reed’s obituary for The East Hampton Star, their local paper. Anderson later edited The Art of the Straight Line, a book of his writing on tai chi, a practice he began in the 1980s.

Sources

Coney Island · DUMBO · Springs

Lou and Laurie.

On 19 June 2010 Reed and Laurie Anderson were King Neptune and Queen Mermaid of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. They had married in 2008.

Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson standing with a young violinist in a white jacket
Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson with the violinist Amadéus Leopold, New York, 2010. Quartetto · CC BY-SA 4.0
A cream and turquoise 1917 building with a painted MUSEUM sign and a row of arched windows
Coney Island USA’s building at Surf Avenue and West 12th Street, 2013. Peter Greenberg · CC BY-SA 3.0

19 June 2010 · 1208 Surf Avenue, Coney Island

King Neptune and Queen Mermaid

Coney Island USA, a not-for-profit arts group, began the parade in 1983 for Coney Island’s old Mardi Gras, which ran from 1903 to 1954.

The Mermaid Parade Ball followed that night at the New York Aquarium. The banners painted for the King and Queen went into the New York Public Library’s exhibition on Reed.

See the building on Surf Avenue, then walk down to the boardwalk.

Sources
A long red-brick warehouse with arched doorways beneath the stone arch of the Brooklyn Bridge
St. Ann’s Warehouse at 45 Water Street, DUMBO, under the Brooklyn Bridge, 2019. Wgreaves · CC BY-SA 4.0

2006 · 45 Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn

Berlin, staged

Julian Schnabel directed it and designed the set. Hal Willner was music producer, and Bob Ezrin, who produced the album, shared the musical direction.

Ellen Kuras filmed it, and the film came out in cinemas in 2008. St. Ann’s Warehouse is at 45 Water Street.

A working theatre under the Brooklyn Bridge. Book a show to go in.

Sources
A small white clapboard hall with a green roof and a flagpole beside a quiet road
Ashawagh Hall in Springs, East Hampton, 2020. CaptJayRuffins · CC BY-SA 4.0

Springs, East Hampton, Long Island

Springs

Reed died on Sunday 27 October 2013. He was 71.

Laurie Anderson wrote Reed’s obituary for The East Hampton Star, their local paper. In it she called Springs their home.

Their home is private. This page names the hamlet and leaves it off the map.

Sources

40 Lincoln Center Plaza · March 2019

What is kept.

A lit glass library entrance under a concrete overhang, with a black steel sculpture in front at dusk
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, with Calder’s Le Guichet in front, 2019. Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA · Public domain

The library acquired Reed’s archive in 2017 and opened it to the public in March 2019. It holds about 300 linear feet of papers and photographs, about 3,600 audio and 1,300 video recordings, and more than 600 hours of tape from 1965 to 2013.

From 15 March 2019 a cardholder could swap for one for the $1 replacement fee. It works like any other NYPL card. You use the archive in the Music and Recorded Sound Division, on the third floor at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza.

The Duke

Unleashed: Pets of the Performing Arts, on until 6 February 2027, includes Reed and his miniature dachshund, The Duke.

Unleashed is free. The library opens 10.30am to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday, and until 8pm on Mondays.

A free public library. Unleashed is on until 6 February 2027; the archive is used on the third floor.

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Visit

Where it is now

11 places you can visit. The home in Springs is private, so it is named and left off the map.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Walk Woodcleft Avenue, the Nautical Mile, along the canal.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working campus. Walk the Quad in front of the Hall of Languages.

  1. A grey-shingled boat sales building on a waterfront street with a motorcycle passing
    The head of the Nautical Mile, Woodcleft Avenue, Freeport, Long Island, 2012. Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Woodcleft Avenue, Freeport, Long Island

    The Nautical Mile, Freeport

    In 1953 Reed’s parents moved the family from Brooklyn to Freeport.

    Walk Woodcleft Avenue, the Nautical Mile, along the canal.

    Sources
  2. A grey stone Victorian hall with three dark towers behind a green lawn and autumn trees
    The Hall of Languages on the Quad at Syracuse University, 2024. Kiran891 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    The Quad, Syracuse, New York

    Syracuse University

    Reed earned his bachelor’s degree from Syracuse with honours in 1964.

    A working campus. Walk the Quad in front of the Hall of Languages.

    Sources

Stay

Sleep in Soho.

A Georgian townhouse hotel a short walk from where Transformer was made.

Hazlitt’s

Hazlitt’s, Soho

6 Frith Street, Soho, London

Thirty rooms in Georgian townhouses at 6 Frith Street, from Club Doubles to suites with four-poster beds and open fires. St Anne’s Court and the old Trident Studios are a short walk across Soho.

Check rooms

Go there

Walk the Village and Soho.

Marketplace music walks in Greenwich Village and in Soho.

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What’s on

See The Duke, catch a gig.

Unleashed at the library, free until 6 February 2027, and shows at Scala.

Scala

Gigs at Scala

275 Pentonville Road, London

The old King’s Cross Cinema is still a working venue, with shows most nights; The Clockworks play on 16 October and Jim Jones All Stars on 18 October.

See what’s on

Take it home

Books and records.

His book on tai chi, a biography and three records tied to these places.

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The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi

Lou Reed, edited by Laurie Anderson and others

His writing on tai chi, with conversations with friends and practitioners.

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Lou Reed: A Life

Anthony DeCurtis

The biography whose author went looking for Reed’s student writing at Syracuse.

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Transformer

Lou Reed · LP, RCA LSP-4807, 1972

Recorded at Trident Studios from August 1972; released on 8 November 1972.

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Live: Take No Prisoners

Lou Reed · LP, RCA Victor XL 03066, 1978

Five nights at the Bottom Line in May 1978, heard through two dummy heads.

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Berlin

Lou Reed · LP, RCA Victor APL1-0207, 1973

The album St. Ann’s Warehouse staged in 2006.

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Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The sources

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

12 of 12 places · 15 of 15 Moments

  • The Nautical Mile, Freeport

    Woodcleft Avenue, Freeport, Long Island

    • The Shades

      At Freeport High School Reed sings and plays guitar in the Shades, who become the Jades.

    • Freeport High School

      Reed graduates from Freeport High School.

  • Syracuse University

    The Quad, Syracuse, New York

    • Honours in English

      Reed graduates with honours, mentored by Delmore Schwartz.

  • Scala, once the King’s Cross Cinema

    275 Pentonville Road, King’s Cross, London

    • First UK show

      Reed plays the King’s Cross Cinema; Mick Rock photographs the night that gives Transformer its cover.

  • Trident Studios

    17 St Anne’s Court, Soho, London

    • Transformer

      Bowie and Ronson co-produce Transformer at Trident Studios.

    • RCA releases Transformer

      Transformer comes out; Walk on the Wild Side becomes his only US Top 40 single.

  • The Bottom Line

    15 West 4th Street, Greenwich Village

    • Five nights, two heads

      Reed records Live: Take No Prisoners binaurally at the Bottom Line.

  • Library for the Performing Arts

    40 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side

    • The archive opens

      The archive opens to the public and 6,000 library cards carry Mick Rock’s photograph of Reed.

    • The Duke

      Unleashed shows Reed with his miniature dachshund, The Duke.

  • Damrosch Park

    West 62nd Street, Lincoln Center

    • The Bells

      A day-long celebration of Reed at Lincoln Center, with tai chi and Drones.

  • St. Ann’s Warehouse

    45 Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn

    • Berlin, staged

      St. Ann’s and the Sydney Festival stage Berlin, directed by Julian Schnabel.

  • Coney Island USA

    1208 Surf Avenue, Coney Island

    • King Neptune and Queen Mermaid

      Reed and Laurie Anderson lead the Mermaid Parade.

  • Central Library, Brooklyn

    10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn

    • Tai Chi Day

      The first International Lou Reed Tai Chi Day, led by Master Ren GuangYi.

  • Prospect Park Bandshell

    Prospect Park, Brooklyn

    • Forms to feedback

      Chen style forms are performed to Drones at the Bandshell.

  • Springs, East Hampton

    Springs, East Hampton, Long Island

    • Springs

      Reed dies in Springs; Anderson writes his obituary for the local paper.

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