History Main / TheCityNarrows

* The outer half of the VIII. district of Budapest, [[UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}} Hungary]]. It's suspiciously similar to a jungle - a machete greatly rises your chances to survive.

* [[PunnyName Nocturne Alley]] in the ''HarryPotter'' books. It's the place where the stores sell [[ArtifactOfDoom artifacts of doom]] instead of normal magical artifacts.

->''He was at once a fence for stolen articles and a spy for the police. He worked a thriving trade both ways, because the district on which he bordered was the Maze, a tangle of muddy, winding alleys and sordid dens, frequented by the bolder thieves in the kingdom.''

** Arguably, Ankh-Morpork is an inversion; ''most of the city'' constitutes one of these, at least up until the events of ''Men At Arms''; the Shades just take it UpToEleven.
** Even the MILITARY doesn't go there. During Night Watch, while the cavalry try and navigate in the city, Vimes jokes about the Shades, saying that the narrow streets would make it so that the cavalry wouldn't be able to dismount... if it weren't for the fact that their horses would be killed and eaten out from under them.

* Several of AndreNorton's science fiction novels (such as ''Judgement on Janus'', ''Catseye'' and ''Forerunner Foray'') have The Dipple, a refugee camp in the planet Korwar's capital city of Tikil.

-->''he was at once a fence for stolen articles and a spy for the police. He worked a thriving trade both ways, because the district on which he bordered was the Maze, a tangle of muddy, winding alleys and sordid dens, frequented by the bolder thieves in the kingdom.''

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* Bunker Hill was this during the golden age of Los Angeles (abt. 1917-1963). Not even South Central comes close today.

It will also manage to be made entirely of back alleys that seem to only back onto more back alleys. It is basically the back alley of the entire city which is what distinguishes it from the WretchedHive: the WretchedHive is an entire locale of crime and vice but TheCityNarrows is the subsection of the city that you can accidentally wander into from the nice side, if they walk too far along the WrongSideOfTheTracks. So you can expect plenty of "What's a nice girl like you doing here then?"

It will also manage to be made entirely of back alleys that seem to only back onto more back alleys. It is basically the back alley of the entire city which is what distinguishes it from the WretchedHive: the WretchedHive is an entire locale of crime and vice but TheCityNarrows is the subsection of the city that you can accidentally wander into [[WrongSideOfTheTracks from the nice side]]. So you can expect plenty of "What's a nice girl like you doing here then?"

In the setting of a large sprawling Metropolis, there is the a certain spot that contains the dark side of city life. It will be the place where the police rarely tread and where those who attend to certain unsavory profession rely on their own methods of protection. It will have its own nickname from the locals, it may even be marked out on the official map. Its level of actual malice may vary; it could be a place where the protagonist is in constant danger for each moment that they spend in this dark corner or it could be a rather lively area with an active blackmarket that forms an actual market and gamblers, whorers and dealers collect for decadent revelry. The latter is more common when TheCityNarrows are the NotSoSafeHarbor district and are thus filled with pirates' and sailors' entertainment in levels that would make FrankMiller blush.

A subtrope of WretchedHive. It is TruthInTelevision to a degree; that degree being how much you can tell the inhabit of a real life version of this trope that they live in their city's arse end and not be given a GlasgowGrin.

It will also manage to be made entirely of back alleys that seem to only back onto more back alleys. It is basically the back alley of the entire city which is what distinguishes it from the WretchedHive: the WretchedHive is an entire locale of crime and vice but TheCityNarrows is the subsection of the city that you can accidentally wander into from the nice side. So you can expect plenty of "What's a nice girl like you doing here then?"

* Five Points was this in ''TheGangsOfNewYork'', as well as in RealLife, in the 19th century.

* Old Detroit as portrayed in ''{{Robocop}}''.

** Even the MILITARY doesn't go there. During Night Watch, while the cavalry try and navigate in the city, Vimes jokes about the Shades, saying that the narrow streets would make it so that the cavalry wouldn't be able to dismount... if it weren't for the fact that their horses would be killed and eaten out from under them.

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* Skid Road, in central {{Seattle}}, [=WA=], was such a place in the early 20th century - the proverbial "Skid Row" having derived from its name. (The neighborhood has since been gentrified and redubbed "Pioneer Square".)

**** Well at the time, it was named 'Park Row'. It acquired the nickname 'Crime Alley' after the Waynes were murdered.

[[folder: VideoGames]]
* The Slums district of Amn in ''BaldursGate II'', home base of the ThievesGuild, full of beggars and yet if you try to rest your party on the streets, the city guard will never fail to stop you.
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* In ''TalesOfTheQuestor'', they have their capital city, Sanctuary--- and the "suburb" commonly known as the Tumbledowns, a multi-story shantytown filled with street gangs and other dregs of society....
* [[CiemWebcomicSeries Candi Levens]] has to rescue Maria Sanmarcos from a part of Dirbine where a lot of really bad stuff seems to happen disproportionately. It's a mess of brick buildings many of which do not have clearly-defined reasons to exist ([[{{Machinomics}} owing to the game]] [[TheSims engine]], since it's complicated trying to give clear definition to all those buildings when your [[TechnoBabble hard drive's virtual memory page file is over 2 GB]], which makes it impossible for [[AuthorExistenceFailure the author to operate efficiently]].) It's located just a few miles away from Latin Town, which is usually pretty peaceful in spite containing ethnic minorities of very low income and little command of English.
** On the other hand, Latin Town is about the only southern Indiana locale in that story which ''isn't'' a WretchedHive.
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