Alberts Garden

East Village

New York City

Art & Culture | History

Green Space, Street Art and Music History

Alberts Garden Ramones Wall East Village

About Alberts Garden

& why it made the Carpe City list

We think this is a particularly cool garden for a couple of reasons:

Along the wall of this garden is where photographer Roberta Bayley snapped her eponymous picture of The Ramones which became the cover of their first album. (See below) The image was taken here as Joey Ramone lived for a time at 6 East 2nd street and it was around the corner from the infamous rock/punk mecca CBGB’s. The street is now named Joey Ramone Place.
There is a great piece of street art on the wall by Belgian street artist, ROA whose anatomical animal murals can be found all over the world.

Other interesting things to note about the garden are:

A lovely little green space on East 2nd Street, Albert’s Garden is one of the 39 (Yes 39!) community gardens found within the small confines of the East Village. Why so many? Find out in our post about Liz Christy.
Per the garden’s website, its sole purpose is “to provide a quiet respite for the general public in order to foster an appreciation of and education about the natural environment along with science and the arts.” Noble. And sooo East Village.
Garden volunteers sometimes host jazz nights, poetry readings and have even rented the space out for a wedding or two.
The stone wall in the back is connected to the New York Marble Cemetery

Photo Courtesy of Roberta Bayley.
See more of her fabulous photos of the 70’s & 80’s punk scene here.

Carpe City Trivia

Who is Roberta Bayley?

Roberta Bayley moved to NYC in 1975 with a one-way ticket and never looked back. She worked the door at CBGB and became friends with many of the punk bands who made their name there. She took photographs of the bands and became the principal photographer for Punk magazine. Roberta’s photography is famous for chronicling the Punk era of the late ’70s and early ’80s with photos of bands like The Ramones, The New York Dolls, Blondie, The Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop and The Clash. One of her most famous pictures is of the Ramones (shown above) in the East Village which became the cover for their debut album. She spent many years photographing Blondie and created a fabulous book with many unseen photos. Check out the Blondie book here.