The West Village occupies the far western edge of Greenwich Village, bounded roughly by Hudson Street to the east and the Hudson River piers to the west. Unlike the grid that governs most of Manhattan, its streets follow old colonial-era lanes and the shoreline of a long-filled creek, producing a tangle of angles — Bethune, Bank, Charles, Perry, West 11th — that confounds GPS and enchants pedestrians. The brownstones are among the best-preserved in the city, many dating from the 1840s and 1850s, their stoops fronting cobbled streets still paved with Belgian block. The neighbourhood has been a centre of LGBT life since at least the 1960s, when the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street became the flashpoint for the modern gay rights movement; the inn still operates, and the small park opposite it was designated a national monument in 2016.
On the retail and dining front the West Village has gentrified thoroughly without quite losing its village character. Bleecker Street between Bank and Christopher is lined with boutiques selling clothes, cheese and wine at prices that reflect the rents. The White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street — where Dylan Thomas drank himself into his final coma in 1953 — is still open, still atmospheric, still serves a decent pint. The High Line elevated park begins its southern terminus a few blocks east at Gansevoort Street, making the Meatpacking District a natural extension of a West Village afternoon.