# Canal Street - New York's knock-off market - photos



## editor (Jan 19, 2008)

Visitors keen to find a piece of untamed New York should check out Canal Street, in lower Manhattan.

It's stuffed full of counterfeit handbags, suspect jewellery, fake Rolex watches, knocked off goods and other iffy merchandise, with 'nuff dodgy, suitcase-toting blokes lurking about.

Here's a couple of snaps:






















More pics: http://www.urban75.org/photos/newyork/canal-street-new-york.html


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## dada (Jan 19, 2008)

canal street is ace.
i miss it.
used to go to pearl paint and other odd bits and bobs hardware stores to get art supplies.


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## editor (Jan 19, 2008)

Pearl Paint is the don of arts and crafts!


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## dada (Jan 19, 2008)

yea it is.
as a student back then, i spent most of my savings there!
they sold the best charcoal i ever used for my life drawing class.


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## Stanley Edwards (Jan 20, 2008)

Happy memories. It doesn't look to have changed much. I can proudly claim to have walked along Canal and Broadway stark bollock naked at about 5am on an icey cold November morning once upon a time.


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## dada (Jan 20, 2008)

Stanley Edwards said:
			
		

> Happy memories. It doesn't look to have changed much. I can proudly claim to have walked along Canal and Broadway stark bollock naked at about 5am on an icey cold November morning once upon a time.



butt naked?
what the hell were you doing?  


remember canal jean?
is it still there?
i bought the most unique vintage clothes there.


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## Stanley Edwards (Jan 20, 2008)

dada said:
			
		

> butt naked?
> what the hell were you doing?



It's a very long, farce like story involving much booze, drugs and me in charge of security and swipe cards for an entire floor of offices on Broadway.




> remember canal jean?
> is it still there?
> i bought the most unique vintage clothes there.


[/QUOTE]

I remember Canal Jean. I was also surprised to see a Yellow Rat Bastard shop open here in Granada last year. Now it's always having a closing down sale.


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## dada (Jan 20, 2008)

yellow rat bastard shop - 
that's where they had real rats on the window display right?  
am i imagining things as my memory of that is unclear.


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## Stanley Edwards (Jan 20, 2008)

dada said:
			
		

> yellow rat bastard shop -
> that's where they had real rats on the window display right?
> am i imagining things as my memory of that is unclear.




 

Not that I noticed. It was on Broadway just above Canal. I could never decide if the name was just wrong, or so wrong it was cool. Had nice packaging and design, that's all I really remember  

I also remember my favourite breakfast cafe on the corner of Canal and Church Street and best bar in the world - a very transient place that often happened somewhere around Mercer Street. Null and Void. You had to know where to find it!

Fuck it. Time I chased up old friends and contacts and revisited if US customs allow  

I used to bring suitcases full of those Rolex rip-offs back to the UK with me


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## zoltan (Jan 20, 2008)

I used to work at the Army Surplus store on the W. end of Canal for a while.

edit:

I left with a set of WW2 GI pacific issue camo pants/ a german ww2 wermacht snow suit ( why ? ) / a Vietnam era used heavweight Aivirex green pilots jacket / a '50's GI issue arctic heavy down sleeping bag and a rucksap of oddments  -sorted for my coming winter expedition to North Africa ( apart form the snow  suit whihc I binned )

I have already related the tale of the '50's fallout shleter medical kit I found - no morph , but 500 tabs of knockout strengh pehnobarbs for keeping everyone in the shelter "calm" fo a couple of weeks. apalling shit that made me fall asleep fo days on end .

The little italy bit is fantastic during the end of summer Italian festival

the shops  still there- called the trader I think - if you want to walk the mena streets of Manhattan looking like Travis Bickle out of Taxi Driver, then this is the place


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## Xanadu (Jan 21, 2008)

Ooh I've been there!


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## Madusa (Jan 21, 2008)

Me too! Bought knockoff  Calvin Klein pants and bootleg cds there.


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## D (Jan 21, 2008)

Funny.  I only ever go to Canal for two reasons, really:

1) Pearl Paint
2) yoga studio in Tribeca

When it's warm I like to walk from the yoga studio (practically on the West Side Highway) to Chinatown, sometimes along Canal.

I've never bought a knockoff of anything there.

I used to go to Pearl River Mart when I was in high school, though.  I think it's moved somewhere else.


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## dada (Jan 21, 2008)

Stanley Edwards said:
			
		

> Not that I noticed. It was on Broadway just above Canal. I could never decide if the name was just wrong, or so wrong it was cool. Had nice packaging and design, that's all I really remember


i swear i saw real life rats crawling about in some window display by broadway and canal.
and it was done on purpose!  



never bought knockoff stuff neither.
it's usually a nice long walk down to chinatown from 23rd for pearl paint, veggie food, or chinese cinema, then walk back up on broadway to galleries or odd clothes scouting.


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## foamy (Jan 21, 2008)

i'm pretty sure we spent an entire day in canal st jean and yellow rat bastard (that has to be the best named shop in the world )


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