Ludlow Street loft

Lou Reed shared a loft with violist John Cale at 56 Ludlow Street in the early sixties. It was in this Lower East Side tenement, on the fifth floor, that the Velvet Underground was born. Cale moved to New York in 1964 and soon met experimental filmmaker Tony Conrad, who invited him to split the $25-a-month rent for his one-bedroom at 56 Ludlow. The place was a total dump—a railroad flat with no heat besides a gas stove and a fireplace where they burned crates and furniture in the winter to keep warm. Lou Reed stayed there on weekends so they could practice, commuting in from—also not very glamorous—Long Island. It was there that the band taped the six songs that became the basis for their first album.