4. Pomander Walk

The Upper West Side also has its share of quaint courtyards, and among them is Pomander Walk, an English-inspired street hidden among buildings. With the entrance on 95th Street and West End, this street is unknown even to many locals, especially since only residents with a key to the gate can access it.

Irish immigrant, restauranteur, and hotelier Thomas Healy created the street in 1921, when it was called a “colony.” The architects, King & Campbell, were said to have taken “slyly humorous delight in making [the Pomander Walk] houses miniature copies of much more pretentious town mansions.” (The New York Times, April 19, 1921). The walk was named after the set of a popular play at the time called Pomander Walk, which featured a London street from the Georgian Period.

Read more about Pomander Walk here.