It's a little cooler today due to extreme weather being experienced in the middle states of America - they have had snowstorms and tornadoes, we are going to get some of that cooler weather here and some rain to go with it.

I'm using another of my museum memberships today - this time exploring the lower east side with the help of the Tenement museum. I will be doing a neighbourhood walking tour, followed by a sweatshop tour.

When you first emerge from the subway, the neighbourhood is pretty ugly, really run down, beggars, cheap goods in shoddy shops. Two blocks over, it changes into a still grimy but hip neighbourhood with really interesting bars and cafes, and boutique shops in the old buildings that were once tenement buildings, home to the different immigrants that lived here because it was cheap. I order my first cappuchino in Dudley's, CNR of Broome and Orchard st. The cafe is so old, the floors are parquetry, the roof is rough curved brick, exposed pipes and a great marble bar - very atmospheric. I order a classic burger and it was fine as an early lunch, but I see most people are eating breakfast still and this would definately be a weekend brunch option.

My first tour is a walking tour called "Outside the home", and it is a walk around the lower east side highlighting immigrants lives (how buildings were structured, role of women in work, ethnic mixes of the immigrants, industries of the area) and significant political and spiritual sites. For example the first occupants of the area were Germans (hence the beer halls), then changed to Eastern European (brings in cafe culture, unchaperoned women, the garment trade). The socialist movement had its roots in this neighbourhood, and many reformists have ties here. All extremely interesting and still topical today.

The next tour I am doing today is inside the tenement building called sweatshop workers. The building has 4 identical apartments per floor and each floor concentrates on a real time and theme. In today's tour, that is year 1885 sweatshops that were commonly set up in the three roomed apartment's living room. The Levin family ran a dress making sweatshop in their apartment they lived in with their 3 children, at a time when there was no plumbing, sanitation or electricity. 20 people would labor in cramped conditions for 60 hour weeks sewing high fashion dresses together on consignment - 75 percent of the clothes came from this neighbourhood during this time.

By contrast a polish family's apartment post 1901 housing reforms saw sweatshops made illegal in living premises, and the installation of hall lighting, electricity, bathtubs in the kitchen, and two indoor common use toilets per floor. Women now worked outside the home in factories, still sewing, which created its own issues, and led to worker exploitation and unionization. The apartments were still overcrowded, and as well as the family occupying the three roomed dwelling, they would often take in boarders, maybe setting up a bed in the already crowded kitchen. One woman on the tour told how her immigrant grandmother would tell similar tales of the kids sleeping on the kitchen floor.

It's happy hour time so I stop at Spitzers alehouse on Ludlow st for a glass of Malbec and some handcut fries, and watch the diverse neighbourhood walk by! There are more backstreets to be discovered, but I will be returning to this area regularly as I still have 5 more tours to complete with my museum membership. I highly recommend this museum to anyone visiting, as it is so unique and personal.