The Avenue — officially West 36th Street — is the commercial strip at the heart of Hampden, Baltimore's most characterful working-class neighbourhood. The two-block stretch between Falls Road and Keswick Avenue contains the greatest concentration of vintage shops, independent boutiques, unusual restaurants, and the kind of establishments that defy easy categorisation of any neighbourhood in the city.
This is the street that John Waters has called home for decades, and the neighbourhood's aesthetic — simultaneously camp, thrifty, and genuinely eccentric — reflects his sensibility or he reflects its. Look for the Hon Cafe, the vintage costume shops, the record store, and the smell of old books from several shops at once. The Avenue is most alive on weekends and summer evenings.