Immersed in the Big Apple

Snow-covered Central Park

Arriving in a bitterly cold and increasingly snowy New York City we were worried that everything might come to a standstill but unlike the British panic when snow arrives NYC continued to speed along and there were plenty of opportunities to explore the city in unique ways. Filling our days with research work at the fascinating archives of the Brooklyn Historical Society, New York University, New York Academy of Medicine, Columbia University and the New York Historical Society the evenings were left to fill up on theatre, museums and sightseeing.

Levine Apartment © Tenement Museum, New York

One such evening was spent in the eerie McKittirick Hotel, the set for Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, an immersive theatre experience transforming Shakespeare’s Macbeth into a film noir style performance where we chased characters from room to room to watch the action unfold. Another theatrical evening came in the form of the Tenement Museum’s Tenement Inspectors event where we were briefed about health and safety, given checklists and assumed the role of tenement inspectors in 1906 at the Lower East Side preserved tenement building. We met actors playing the real landlady and tenant from that time and quizzed them on the poor conditions of the building in this fascinating step back into early 20th century New York.

Central Station

Other than these captivating experiences simply wandering around the streets and parks of Manhattan and Brooklyn was the perfect way to see the city with ornate Grand Central Station, the impressive Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, views over to the Statue of Liberty and the incredible sights from the top of the Rockefeller Center. Another highlight was strolling along the High Line, an old overhead freight train line built in 1934 as part of the West Side Improvement Project to carry goods to and from Manhattan’s industrial district. It served this purpose until 1980 when the last trains ran but has now been converted into a walkway through the buildings providing a perfect platform for soaking up the history and atmosphere of different areas of this bustling city.