These are Midtown's working blocks — where the city eats late, sells in bulk and still, just about, makes the clothes it wears. No postcards; the appeal is the density and the trades, best after dark when K-Town lights up and the day's freight is done.
Start on West 32nd Street, the K-Town block, where the signs climb four and five storeys because the barbecue rooms and karaoke bars stack vertically. West to Herald Square — the little wedge with the Bennett clock and its bell-striking bronzes — and into Macy's, where the original wooden escalators still creak up the upper floors and nobody makes you buy anything. North into the Garment District: the bronze garment worker bent over his machine, the oversized button-and-needle, the lofts that still cut and sew above the trim shops.
Then east, out of the trade and into the hush, to the Morgan Library — McKim's 1906 marble box around Pierpont Morgan's three-storey study, the rare books in tiers and a painted ceiling to crane your neck at. From the Morgan, the 6 at 33rd is a slow four blocks back.
