History Main / TheCityNarrows

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 the City Narrows is the subsection of the city that you can accidentally wander into from the nice side, ''if'' you walk too far along the WrongSideOfTheTracks (however, as in the above example of [[{{Literature/Discworld}} Ankh Morpork]], a WretchedHive can still have a Narrows area if the subsection manages to be even ''worse'' than the rest). 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 always 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 professions 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, and any recognised ThievesGuild is likely to have its headquarters around here. Its level of actual malice may vary; it could be a terrifying, silent 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 and cheerful area with an active BlackMarket that forms an actual market and where gamblers, whores and dealers collect for decadent revelry. The latter is more common when The City Narrows are the NotSoSafeHarbor district and are thus filled with pirates' and sailors' entertainment in levels that would make Creator/FrankMiller blush.

A subtrope of WretchedHive and WrongSideOfTheTracks. It was TruthInTelevision back when the Kowloon Walled City existed until 1993, when it was demolished to build a large city park, and it still is to a degree; that degree being how much you can tell the inhabitants of a real life version of this trope that [[UrbanSegregation they live in their city's arse end]] and not be given a GlasgowGrin.

* ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'': Asterisk has two. The redevelopment zone is full of abandoned buildings following a NoodleIncident in the backstory (it has ''something'' to do with the death of the previous Festa governing committee president), while the Rotlicht is full of casinos, black market shops and organized crime.

* The subtly-named Slumville in Midway City, home of [[ComicBook/HawkMan Hawkman, Hawkgirl]], and the ComicBook/DoomPatrol.

* In ''Fanfic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'' Ed wanders around Canal Street at night, which the worst place in Central. It has the highest in gang violence, prostitution and drug rings. It also has a very active nightlife.

* Either the entire City of Detroit, Michigan, or the bar located on the Barbary Coast in ''{{Film/Airplane}}'' which was so bad it was "worse than Detroit," depending on which way you want to take it.

* In the second novel of ''Literature/TheBourneSeries'' the infamous Walled City of Kowloon plays a major part as a setting and it's wretchedness and the wretchedness of Bourne's old life reflect each other.
* The novel ''Literature/AChildOfTheJago'' by Arthur Morrison is set in a fictionalized version of the the Old Nichol district of VictorianLondon.

* King's Landing in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is itself quite the ViceCity with large areas of various flavours of WretchedHive from docksides to Red Keep to the Great Sept and just beyond the city walls. But, it also has the unabashedly down-at-heels, twisty and very old (likely the remains of a small settlement predating the Targaryen landing) Flea Bottom found within spitting distance of the great and the "good" up on either Aegon's (the Red Keep) or Visenya's Hill (the Great Sept), where you would be best served by picking up your pace and getting your sword or knife out and ready if you're even remotely well-dressed, riot or not. And, never, ever enquire too hard as to [[MysteryMeat what goes into the bowls of brown]] served there in potshops and "inns". [[ImAHumanitarian You might]] just [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies find out]].

* Such districts pop up in several ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novels, despite much of it concentration on a society's upper layers, like the above example.
** Old City in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} is a notorious slum which generally corresponds to both flavors of the trope. [[{{Irony}} The Loop]] is still a lively bohemian area (where you should pay close attention to your wallet's whereabouts though), and even a Soldier Field isn't that bad, but the lower levels are overrun with the murderous hoodlums, junkies and occasional rogue SuperSoldier.

** Even the Austin City mentioned to have a couple, despite being on the [[DeathWorld literally toxic planet of Grayson]], where just walking out without your gas mask can give you lead poisoning in minutes.

* Played with in the third season of ''Series/TheWire''. Hamsterdam (a legalized drug zone, with all of the unpleasantness you'd think that implies, and a bit more) is made as far away as possible with it still being accessible to street dealers. It's still not far enough so that and old lady doesn't live there, [[spoiler:or for the press not to notice]].

** The Shattergraves of Chicago. It's the wreckage of where the Sears Tower was brought down by a terrorist attack. As the site of a mass-casualty terrorist incident it's ''loaded'' with angry ghosts and has become the territory of a massive number of feral ghouls, because they're the only ones the ghosts can't drive out.
** Kowloon Walled City still exists in ''Shadowrun'''s version of Hong Kong, and is even worse than its real-life version. Rebuilt as a refugee resettlement project, the Walled City is a cesspool of despair and misery, and powerful toxic spirits called Yama Kings feed on the inhabitants and actively keep things as bad as humanly possible in order to maintain their food supply.

* TabletopGame/Carbon2185: true to Cyberpunk style, just about every major city has these. London is now divided between Inner and Outer London. Inner London is practically a corporate police state, while Outer London is controlled by a variety of punk gangs that are engaged in a near constant guerilla war with the corporations.

* In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', website Website/{{Reddit}} is portrayed as a NotSoSafeHarbor. At first, the place appears to be a classic PortTown, then you discover that those who lacks upvotes are forced to live in the downtrodden, crime-ridden Downvoting Lane located in the back alleys of the city.

* The district of Martinaise in the city of Revachol from ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', where of the game's plot take place, easily qualifies. While explicity ''not'' the worst neighbourhood in Revachol (that dubious honor goes to the dying factory district of Coal City), Martinaise is one of the poorest, and has gone completely unpoliced by the local police force, the RCM, for over twenty years. While The Hardie Boys, a vigilante group affiliated with the local dockworker's union, the Débardeurs' Union, have cleaned it up considerably in the last ten years, the fact remains that, by most outside definitions, the Débardeurs' Union are nothing more than NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters

* Freeside in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', though it has a less hostile edge than other examples on this page. Sure there are thieves, muggers, drunks, drug dealers and annoying advertisers. But a gang called The Kings and the friendly-anarchists The Followers of The Apocalypse keep the place from going totally to the dogs.

* It's possible to build these in ''{{VideoGame/Pharaoh}}'' through a combination of low-grade housing, high taxes, unemployment, low food, lack of police presence and highly undesirable surroundings like an IndustrialGhetto. If discontmentent is allowed to rise too high, houses start spawning criminals who don't stay in the ghettos, instead homing in on the palace and tax offices to steal your money. However, they only appear on higher difficulties.

* ''Webcomic/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.
* ''Webcomic/TheGlassScientists'' utilizes real-life Victorian slum of Bethnal Greene, described as "The city's oily belly, a foul-smelling swamp belching half-digested dreams" where shadows and wickedness abound.

* In ''Webcomics/SunsetGrill'' the part of Kieselburg called Lowtown is this. The city authorities practically admit that Lowtown is run by [[TheSyndicate l'affaires]] and the legal business that are there pay them protection money. In fact, l'affaires often keeps the peace better than the police do.
* In ''Webcomic/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....

* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', Threshold, [[TheMagocracy Alent's]] northeastern district, has an ominous reputation and has driven many people who have ventured there insane. The very air, ground, buildings and narrow, labyrinthine and twisting alleys seem to be alive and hostile to any non-native, and the shadows play with trespassers' minds with sometimes fatal consequences. It later turns out that the people living in Threshold are in fact disguised demons whose chaotic powers have warped the district to suit their needs. The horrible experiences which trespassers had turned out to be manifestations of their ''own'' inner darkness and emotions which were triggered by the demonic auras in the area.
-->'''Javan''': The truth is that the only real darkness in this place is the darkness you bring in it yourself. Every sin, every repressed memory, every stray fear and blind rage. Everything people want to ignore about themselves. What's in here was always there, it's just a bit more... insistent in its existence in Threshold.
* [[http://www.collegehumor.com/video/3896718/rape-tunnel-a-valentines-day-love-story---moon-county The Rape Tunnel.]] "It actually has it's advantages. Criminals are too afraid to come into the rape tunnel neighborhood, so we're actually pretty secure here."
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': The initial appearance of Mistral is of a beautiful city that uses every inch of picturesque mountain slopes to create an apparently happy, tranquil place with spectacular views. However, Qrow warns the teenage heroes to stay away from the city's lower levels, and mentions that anything can be bought there for a price. When he goes looking for Huntsmen to join them on their quest, Ozpin asks him to choose those who can be trusted; Qrow cynically responds that they can be trusted to put up a good fight and heads into the seedy lower levels to find them. Here, strangers are met with suspicion, Faunus discrimination is openly displayed at the entrances to businesses and both businesses and homes are run-down and shabby.

* The ironically named Good Luck Alley in ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' and ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries''. In the film it's where illegal robot fights take place, the series extends it being where you go for other illegal contests and to buy military-grade robot parts without needing to explain what you want them for.

** Khitrovka in the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Imperial era]]. Overlaps with OutlawTown, since it was an area which was a "safe haven" of sorts for gangsters, escaped convicts and the like. Ironically, it sat right between the bustling Kitai-Gorod business district and several affluent residential neighborhoods in the downtown area, whose inhabitants had to see (and ''smell'') its unsavory character every day, but nobody could do anything about it, so much was the influence of the landowners, who reaped enormous profits from the area. The district was purged clean by Bolsheviks after UsefulNotes/RedOctober.
** There's now a popular theory that Khitrovka's reputation as a criminal hell-hole was artificially inflated by the leading journalists of the time, such as Vladimir Gilyarovsky, because, well, [[MoneyDearBoy criminal stories simply sold better]]. In reality it was perhaps something like Kowloon (below) -- [[WrongSideOfTheTracks a simple dirt-poor neighborhood]] where some criminals had set their shop. Another point is that Gilyarosky was a Communist and had used a quarter's reputation (that he himself helped to build) to criticize the Tsarist Government.

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

* "Several parts of Honolulu in ''Series/MagnumPI''" up above? The most notorious of these several parts, at least until a wave of clean ups in the early 2000s, was Hotel Street in Chinatown. Long a red-light district catering to certain... desires... of sailors from neighboring Pearl Harbor, the area became very run down and was controlled by the Tongs and other organized crime syndicates, and it was not a place you went to at night if you valued your life, and it was a wise man who avoided it during the day as well. The area has, however, undergone a revitalization that has -- mostly -- reclaimed the area for decent society.

* Being the hometown of the ViolentGlaswegian, Glasgow naturally [[WretchedHive has several]]. Historically, Maryhill and Ruchill were this, but they have vastly improved in recent years. The most notable ones these days are Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Possilpark and Shettleston. Shettleston is notable for having a lower life expectancy than ''UsefulNotes/NorthKorea.''

* South Side Chicago is often on the rougher side, but few neighborhoods compare to Englewood. One of the absolute poorest parts of the city, Englewood's crime rate is ''unbelievably'' high even by national standards. Beset with a rapidly dwindling population, universally-failing schools, and widespread unemployment, Englewood has been the focus of numerous revitalization attempts, every single one of which has failed. At this point, it is known as the part of Chicago that only those with a death wish visit.

* UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}}, historically, had The Rocks (foundation until the early 20th century), Cabramatta (TheEighties until recently) and Sutherland. Nowadays, Fairfield and its accompanying suburbs (Yennora, Guildford, Villawood) are probably the one part of Sydney you should avoid at all costs.
* Auckland's southern suburbs are particularly notorious for gangs and robberies, especially the southern half of Manukau, including Otara, Papakura and Mangere.
* Mention the Pan Bendito area to residents of Madrid and a lot of them will make an "oh boy" face. Now, Madrid being a fairly safe city, Pan Bendito is not at the level of some other areas listed here; locals will tell you to avoid it if you can and not carry anything valuable if you cannot, but the local latino bands are unpleasant, not psychopathically murderous, and it's not like you need to have a death wish to walk in. Still, it's definitely one of the least desirable places in the city, along with sizable parts of the Usera and Villaverde districts.
* Santiago, Chile has La Pintana, the clearest example available for a city district where violent crime is an everyday thing. Drug trades on every corner and nightly shootouts with increasingly high-caliber weaponry are widely known, and everyone within it and surrounding areas knows not to be around once the sun's go down, unless they want to risk stray bullets or a mugging at knife-point. The cops still have a presence there, thankfully, but they only enter in large groups; it's fairly common for random cartel thugs to take potshots at them otherwise.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania Christiania]] in Copenhagen is a rather odd example. Originally the area was a military installation in the city (its last major use was to execute war criminals after World War II), which was taken over by students, artists and hippies and turned into a commune in 1971 when the military abandoned it. In the decades since, the area has been in a weird legal limbo similar to Kowloon, with different governments trying on and off to shut the commune/free state down, with no success. As a result, minor crimes, most famously open sale of marijuana, are not only common, but part of the commune's fame. Hard drugs have been unofficially banned by the residents since the late [=70s=], but are still a problem.

** [[https://www.tofugu.com/japan/nishinari/ Nishinari-ku]] in Osaka, considered the slum of Osaka and the most dangerous place in Japan. It is infamous for multiple rioting incidents, strong {{Yakuza}} presence and the largest RedLightDistrict in Japan. It is almost literally on the WrongSideOfTheTracks from the much more upmarket Namba district to the nearby north.

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* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', [[SociopathicHero Alex]] lives in the type of place where seeing [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight ten-year-olds raped in the streets]] is uninteresting and people over thirty don't open their doors after dark, but there seem to be quieter areas where it's actually ''unusual'' for Alex to break through the door to bash your head in. That isn't to say the whole city isn't a WretchedHive - just that Alex lives in an even worse subsection of it. Which explains a lot, actually.

* While calling the entirety of Cthulhu City for ''Trail of Cthulhu'' this wouldn't be ''too'' inaccurate - it is, after all, a city of ambiguous existence that, even if it's real, is cut off from the greater US and mostly run by cults of Mythos entities - Westheath, Chinatown, and the Innsmouth Docks are the main hubs of criminal activity. Westheath is run by the old-school Mafioso of the Malatesta gang (give or take a bit of cultism), Chinatown is held by the Tsan Chan Tong (with some mysterious connection to the "cruel empire of Tsan Chan" that will exist in the year 5000), and Innsmouth is the home of the Marsh gang (and if you have even a basic awareness of ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'', you'll already have guessed that "[[HalfHumanHybrid sleeping with the fishes]]" takes on [[FishPeople a whole new meaning]] for the Marsh outfit).

* ''Ride/DoctorDoomsFearfall'' at [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal's Islands of Adventure]] is located in the "darker" part of Marvel Super Hero Island - a seedy alleyway that's appropriately titled, "Doom Alley".

* The crumbling slums of Meiyerditch in ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' are so labyrinthine that they actually form a mini-Agility obstacle course for players. Expect to see pale, emaciated humans cowering in back alleys, fearful of the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vyrewatch]] who are raising them like cattle for blood tithes - the player also stands a chance of being tithed if they spend too much time outside with a Vyrewatch nearby.

* In ''Webcomic/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....

** There's now a popular theory that Khitrovka's reputation as a criminal hell-hole was artificially inflated by the leading journalists of the time, such as Vladimir Gilyarovsky, because, well, [[MoneyDearBoy criminal stories simply sold better]]. In reality it was perhaps something like Kowloon (below) — [[WrongSideOfTheTracks a simple dirt-poor neighborhood]] where some criminals had set their shop. Another point is that Gilyarosky was a Communist and had used a quarter's reputation (that he himself helped to build) to criticize the Tsarist Government.

* Several parts of London have had this image at various points in its history - Southwark of 500 years ago was famous for its brothels (licensed by the local bishop!) and St. Giles was the place the police would only go en masse.

* Skid Road, in central UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}, 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", though it's still not the sort of area one feels comfortable walking around in after dark.)

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

* UsefulNotes/{{Munich}} has a few districts traditionally known as the city's narrows. The oldest is the Au ("Valley") on the eastern banks of the river, which was traditionally a piss-poor workers' community with many two-storey houses (a rarity in Munich's mostly-five-storey centre). But in the last few decades, it has slowly transformed into a popular artsy neighbourhood not unlike [[UsefulNotes/{{London}} Soho]], with cosmic property prices thanks to the many charming old houses. The Au's most outstanding feature however has always been - and still is - a relic of its more infamous times - the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auer_Dult Auer Dult]], an annual junk market and Catholic fair - one of the largest of its kind in Europe.
** Then there also is a much more contemporary district with that reputation (commonly referred to as a 'Glasscherbenviertel' - a 'glass shard quarter'), the Hasenbergl ("Hares' Hillock") in the generally poor northern Munich area, which had a very popular poor and immigrant criminal subculture (for one, many [[GermanMedia German]] [[PoliceProcedural police procedurals]] [[Series/{{Tatort}} loved]] the area) until the end of the last century. But nowadays, it's also well on its way to gentrification - present-day Munich has the lowest crime statistics of any major German municipality.

** And The Cauldron, which is run by the Irish Mob and mostly appears in ''Comicbook/{{Hitman}}'' (which Batman is said to avoid). When [[Comicbook/BatmanNoMansLand Gotham was abandoned by the government and fell under gang law]], the residents of the Cauldron ''didn't notice''.

** Gail Simone wrote a satirical article when Hell's Kitchen started getting gentrified into Clinton; Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} runs into Bullseye, who's more interested in getting a latte at Starbucks than fighting.

* The subtly-named Slumville in Midway City, home of [[Comicbook/HawkMan Hawkman, Hawkgirl]], and the Comicbook/DoomPatrol.

* ''Comicbook/SinCity'':

* In ''FanFic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'' Ed wanders around Canal Street at night, which the worst place in Central. It has the highest in gang violence, prostitution and drug rings. It also has a very active nightlife.

* ''Literature/TheWildOnes'' has Ankle Snap Alley, where a majority of the story takes place. However, despite being a "city," it's just a small alley within a ''real'' city, and it just so happens that the Alley is home to a group of thieves, liars, and swindling [[FunnyAnimals Funny Animals]].

* The lower you go in a hive city in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', the more it resembles this trope. The lowest levels are home to those even the basest dregs of society don't want such as mutants and rogue psykers. And it gets even worse further down: ''{{TabletopGame/Necromunda}}'', for instance, has giant psychic spiders.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'': The back alleys of Port Island Station are the seediest part of the city, being where all the hoodlums hang out. You do get into some real danger the one time the plot sends you there, but the rest of the time you can go there as much as you want (and you have to for some sidequests), and the worst you'll get are two teenagers cussing at you.

* ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':

* The district of Martinaise in the city of Revachol from ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', where of the game's plot take place, easily qualifies. While explicity ''not'' the worst neighbourhood in Revachol (that dubious honor goes to the dying factory district of Coal City), Martinaise is one of the poorest, and has gone completely unpoliced by the local police force, the RCM, for over twenty years. While The Hardie Boys, a vigilante group affiliated with the local dockworker's union, the Débardeurs' Union, have cleaned it up considerably in the last ten years, the fact remains that, by most outside definitions, the Débardeurs' Union are nothing more than NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters
-->'''Lt. Kim Kitsuragi:''' It's our fault for leaving this place to the dogs. To the Union. To the company. Not daring to come here more often. It's like I told you -- this place is an orphan. Fallen through the cracks.

* ''Literature/HoshiAndTheRedCityCircuits'' has Shirring Point, where most crimes and most innovations occur. Law enforcement has abandoned the area in the hopes that its depravity will remain contained. Hoshi goes there often for information.

* The novel ''A Child of the Jago'' by Arthur Morrison is set in a fictionalized version of the the Old Nichol district of VictorianLondon.

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

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the city plane of Ravnica has the whole undercity, run by the murderous maniacs of [[CircusOfFear Rakdos]], the assassins and spies of [[MurderInc Dimir]], and the Golgari {{necromancer}}s.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Ptolus}}'' has the Barrens, a lawless slum that even the major crime syndicates leave alone because it's too unruly and has nothing worth stealing or controlling. The Undercity Market is an aversion: it's BeneathTheEarth and full of adventurers, but it's mostly for resupplying, and it's successful enough that it has a burgeoning residential area as well—and being full of heavily-armed adventurers is actually pretty good for keeping things relatively civil and orderly.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': Sharn has a fair chunk of the Lower Wards and most of the Depths, with particular attention paid to the Cogs (which double as an industrial sector) and Lower Dura.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' campaign setting, the planar city of Sigil has the Hive. It's one big lawless slum where criminals, anarchists, death-worshipers, and demons fight for control. Even Sigil's normally formidable Harmonium guard are too afraid to patrol there. And even the Hive itself has a part that's bad even by its standards, the Slags. This place is in complete ruins, having been torn apart by a Blood War battle that spilled over into the city, there's seismic activity that makes the remaining structures unstable, and a demonic predator called Kadyx hunts the place. No sane resident ever goes there, and few that do come out alive.
* There are plenty of cities in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'', each with their own narrows, but the most likely place for players to run afoul in is Emancipation's former factory and slave districts, which are full of crime as the city has yet to replace slavery with anything meaningful for the people that were freed. That's ignoring the cities that are literally just narrows, like Freelandia and Maven Haven.
* While calling the entirety of Cthulhu City for ''Trail of Cthulhu'' this wouldn't be ''too'' inaccurate - it is, after all, a city of ambiguous existence that, even if it's real, is cut off from the greater US and mostly run by cults of Mythos entities - Westheath, Chinatown, and the Innsmouth Docks are the main hubs of criminal activity. Westheath is run by the old-school Mafioso of the Malatesta gang (give or take a bit of cultism), Chinatown is held by the Tsan Chan Tong (with some mysterious connection to the "cruel empire of Tsan Chan" that will exist in the year 5000), and Innsmouth is the home of the Marsh gang (and if you have even a basic awareness of ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'', you'll already have guessed that "[[HalfHumanHybrid sleeping with the fishes]]" takes on [[FishPeople a whole new meaning]] for the Marsh outfit).
* ''TabletopGame/FreedomCity'' has The Fens, which as the name suggests was basically built on a swamp.
* The district of Martinaise in the city of Revachol from ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', where of the game's plot take place, easily qualifies. While explicity ''not'' the worst neighbourhood in Revachol (that dubious honor goes to the dying factory district of Coal City), Martinaise is one of the poorest, and has gone completely unpoliced by the local police force, the RCM, for over twenty years. While The Hardie Boys, a vigilante group affiliated with the local dockworker's union, the Débardeurs' Union, have cleaned it up considerably in the last ten years, the fact remains that, by most outside definitions, the Débardeurs' Union are nothing more than NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters
-->'''Lt. Kim Kitsuragi:''' It's our fault for leaving this place to the dogs. To the Union. To the company. Not daring to come here more often. It's like I told you -- this place is an orphan. Fallen through the cracks.

* "Shantytown" in the Finkton district of ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'''s Columbia. Populated entirely by the lowest-income residents of the floating city, who work brutally exploitative jobs in Fink's dangerous factories and warehouses and are mostly people of color. [[spoiler: After the dazzling splendor of most of the previous areas explored in the game, the grim descent into Shantytown comes as a reminder of what's *actually* keeping a society like this afloat(figuratively speaking, that is)]].

* ''Webcomic/RoninGalaxy'', Cecil explains at the [[http://www.roningalaxy.com/comics/chapter-2/page-57/ beginning of chapter two]] that the Moritomi Complex seems like an average city until you enter a suspiciously dark alley. Then it turns into a feudal Japanese red-light district.
* In ''Webcomic/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....

* Referenced by name [[http://cockeyed.the-comic.org/comics/47/ here]]
* In ''Webcomics/SunsetGrill'' the part of Kieselburg called Lowtown is this. The city authorities practically admit that Lowtown is run by [[TheSyndicate l'affaires]] and the legal business that are there pay them protection money. In fact, l'affaires often keeps the peace better than the police do.
* In ''Webcomic/TheLettersOfTheDevil'', [[spoiler:the run-down warehouse district becomes a scene of violence and chaos when Gilly attacks Cedric with a syringe.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}},'' young {{Catfolk}} Prince Lion-O is introduced [[KingIncognito sneaking]] cloaked and [[InTheHood hooded]] into the worst part of Thundera's slums, only to catch the eye of a gang of "Alley Cat" muggers who've just finished beating a hapless [[{{Dogfaces}} Dog]]. He's there to shop for LostTechnology, or rather, "certain hard-to-find [[DoubleSpeak collectibles]]." in the BlackMarket, having cultivated a [[FriendInTheBlackMarket relationship]] with its proprietor Jorma.

* The ironically named Good Luck Alley in ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' and ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries''. In the film it's where illegal robot fights take place, the series extends it being where you go for other illegal contests and to buy military-grade robot parts without needing to explain what you want them for.
* Several episodes of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' have the villains holed up in an area of St Canard that appears to actually be ''named'' "The Bad Part of Town".

* The Walled City in ''Anime/WitchHunterRobin'', presumably taking its name from the real world Kowloon Walled City that was used in the Bourne series below.
* The Gray Terminal, a literal compost heap, which lies right next door to the capital City of Goa Kingdom on Luffy's hometown of Dawn Island in ''Manga/OnePiece''.
* Wherever ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'' takes place has this.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', while Satellite is a pretty bad place (in the first season, at least), there's a part of it where even the natives dare not go called the [[FunWithAcronyms B.A.D. Area]], which stands for Barbaric Area after Damage. The site of the Old Momentum Reactor that caused Zero Reverse, the place is dominated by a crater where the old plant used to be, surrounded by ash and rubble. The reactor is still within the crater, its negative energy now creating a [[{{Hellgate}} portal to Hell itself]]. While the Dark Signers made this their headquarters, even hardened residents like Crow were scared of the place.

* Suicide Slum in Metropolis, from ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''
* The subtly-named Slumville in Midway City, home of [[Comicbook/HawkMan Hawkman, Hawkgirl]], and the Comicbook/DoomPatrol.
* The Triangle, a hotspot of gang warfare in ComicBook/GreenArrow's Star City. The Glades from the TV version have since appeared in the comics.

* Downtown in ''ComicBook/Marvel2099''. Which is the whole of old New York. Everybody who's middle class or above live in [[SkyscraperCity mile-high towers]], ride [[FlyingCar aircars]] and never go near ground level if they can avoid it.
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Sector 301, dubbed "The Pit", had a reputation as the most crime-ridden area of Mega-City One. It was unofficially being used as a [[ReassignedToAntarctica dumping ground]] for the most incompetent members of the Justice Department, causing a spike in [[DirtyCop police corruption]] and [[PoliceAreUseless ineffectiveness]] until Dredd was sent in to clean house.
** There's also the once-off location "Hayte Street" in Sector 46, where the local criminals are incredibly active and vicious. Judge Dredd claims he wouldn't leave '''[[OmnicidalManiac Judge Death]]''' handcuffed and helpless in Hayte Street. The rookie he was accompanying at the time, needless to say, fails quite spectacularly when the perp he had arrested and left at a pick-up point is systematically robbed of everything he owns and then dismembered by organ-sharks before he and Dredd can return to rescue him.

* Five Points was this in ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'', as well as in RealLife, in the 19th century.
* The nearly literal "Narrows" quarter of Gotham City in ''Film/BatmanBegins''. It's an impoverished, crime-ridden portion of the city on the far side of the river from downtown where the cops are only willing to go in force, which happens to house Arkham Asylum [[spoiler:and the League of Shadows' base of operations]].

* Either the entire City of Detroit, Michigan, or the bar located on the Barbary Coast in ''{{Film/Airplane}}'' which was so bad it was "worse than Detroit," depending on which way you want to take it.
* The Red-Light District in ''Film/SinCity'' where the whores run everything and the police won't even drive across the line, they just turn around and go back.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** The Shades of Ankh-Morpork. A classic example: the cops don't go there at all (except for the werewolf), the [[BandOfBrothels Seamstresses' Guild]] need to rely on a couple of [[AmbiguouslyHuman assumed]], [[NeverMessWithGranny nightmarish old ladies]] to keep their girls safe with and each time a major character enters it's basically just a countdown for their first RandomEncounter.
** Even the MILITARY doesn't go there. During ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', 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.
** According to ''The Compleat Ankh-Morpork City Guide'' "the vigilance of the City Watch has rendered this part of Ankh-Morpork far less exciting to walk around than previously", and the criminals even respect Thieves Guild protection, which they didn't in earlier books. It's still noted for traditional street cries like "No, no, no, please, no!", though.
* Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse and [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]:
** The underlevels of Coruscant. The planet is one huge city, so overdeveloped that the lower levels barely ever, often never, see natural sunlight. This drives the property values down and attracts the wrong sort of character (though Palpatine probably tried to [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers shift the blame on non-human immigrants]]). The ''Literature/XWingSeries'' has Gavin Darklighter from Tatooine going to the underlevels of Coruscant and thinking that "if Mos Eisely was considered the armpit of the galaxy, this part of Coruscant could be considered anatomically lower and decidedly less hygienic." In ''Literature/LabyrinthOfEvil'', Darth Sidious's hideout on Coruscant, seen at the end of ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', is in an abandoned industrial zone called "The Works," not far from the Senate District where most scenes on Coruscant are set. The Works is just as bad topside as it is underneath: rusted, polluted, and filled with vermin, vagrants, criminals, and worse.
** By contrast, the lower levels of Nar Shaddaa (The "Smuggler's Moon") are a sort of inversion. They're considered ''safer'' than the higher levels because everyone walks around armed and no one has anything worth stealing.

* ''Literature/ThievesWorld'', the shared world fantasy series created by Robert Lynn Asprin, has the Maze in the city of Sanctuary.

* ''Literature/TheWildOnes'' has Ankle Snap Alley, where a majority of the story takes place. However, despite being a "city," it's just a small alley within a ''real'' city, and it just so happens that the Alley is home to a group of thieves, liars, and swindling [[FunnyAnimals Funny Animals]].

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', while the west side of the Eldar in Ebou Dar is relatively safe, wandering in the Rahad on the east side in rich clothes is equivalent to suicide unless you have a Wise Woman with you. Mat jokes that TheLegionsOfHell could invade the Rahad only for their bodies to show up later, robbed naked.
* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's novel ''[[Literature/SpiralArm The January Dancer]]'', the Terran Corner on Jehovah seems to fall into this category, being a ghetto inhabited by the descendants of those [[NoodleIncident expelled from Earth]] many generations ago.
* [[PunnyName Knockturn Alley]] in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books. It's the place where the stores sell [[ArtifactOfDoom artifacts of doom]] instead of normal magical artifacts.

* King's Landing in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is itself quite the ViceCity with large areas of various flavours of WretchedHive from docksides to Red Keep to the Great Sept and just beyond the city walls. But, it also has the unabashedly down-at-heels, twisty and very old (likely the remains of a small settlement predating the Targaryen landing) Flea Bottom found within spitting distance of the great and the "good" up on either Aegon's (the Red Keep) or Visenya's Hill (the Great Sept), where you would be best served by picking up your pace and getting your sword or knife out and ready if you're even remotely well-dressed, riot or not. And, never, ever enquire too hard as to [[MysteryMeat what goes into the bowls of brown]] served there in potshops and "inns". [[ImAHumanitarian You might]] just [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies find out]].
* The novel ''A Child of the Jago'' by Arthur Morrison is set in a fictionalized version of the the Old Nichol district of VictorianLondon.
* In George Alec Effinger's ''Literature/MaridAudran'' series, the Budayeen is a cross between this and a RedLightDistrict. Tourists who ignore the warnings and decide they want to sample the delights offered by the Budayeen often leave in a body bag.
* ''Literature/{{Murderworld}}'' features an in-game zone called Nex, which is an area for trade in illegal or shady products and services, including hacks, cheats, or tweaks to the Murderworld game itself. Gamers who frequent the zone often use avatars that are surreal or terrifying.

* ''Literature/BarnabyGrimes'' has the Gatling Quays, which are the least pleasant district in the city, and in a permanent state of warfare between twelve gangs who effectively control the area.
* In ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', [[SociopathicHero Alex]] lives in the type of place where seeing [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight ten-year-olds raped in the streets]] is uninteresting and people over thirty don't open their doors after dark, but there seem to be quieter areas where it's actually ''unusual'' for Alex to break through the door to bash your head in. That isn't to say the whole city isn't a WretchedHive - just that Alex lives in an even worse subsection of it. Which explains a lot, actually.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/IWillFearNoEvil'' has parts of the major city where Johann lives that are referred to as an "AbandonedArea" that are so bad that even the police won't go into them with less than a squad, because smaller numbers might never come back, and they are basically areas with no police protection at all, the criminals feed on each other Kilkenny Cats style.
* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': The Anthill, Calyx's slum quarter, is a perfect example. It's actually [[WretchedHive the size of a small city.]]

* Creator/StephenKing's "Down There," the bad side of Bridgeport in ''Literature/HeartsInAtlantis'', where low men corrupt existence itself. Stephen King says his "Down There" is a fictional part of a real city. None of the Connecticut locations where action in that book is set have any real-life counterparts. He overlaid a fictional template over the real city and created fiction all over it until only a few features of the setting show through from the real city; for example, the Housatonic.
* [[http://fictionmania.tv/searchdisplay/authordisplay.html?word=2623 Emma Finn's]] ''One Thing Different'' series of short stories, and her single short story ''Spiral Stair'', feature a magical transformation version, Barton, and feature protagonists who blunder into the neighborhood.
--> “Once you come to Barton, there ain’t no way out.”
* Literature/GladiatorAtLaw by Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth has Belly Rave (Belle Reve Estates), a slum that evolved out of suburban tracts built for returning servicemen after WWII. While good corporate employees are rewarded with 'bubble houses' ( fully-equipped modern domes owned by the corporations), other cities are surrounded by the equivalent of Belly Rave and dominated by juvenile gangs.

** The Shades of Ankh-Morpork. A classic example: the cops don't go there at all (except for the werewolf), the [[BandOfBrothels Seamstresses' Guild]] keep their girls safe with a couple of ... people and each time a major character enters it's basically just a countdown for their first RandomEncounter.

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', while the west side of the Eldar in Ebou Dar is relatively safe, wandering in the Rahad on the east side in rich clothes is equivalent to suicide. Unless you have a Wise Woman with you.

** Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo has long had a reputation as a hotbed of Yakuza activity and den of iniquity. How much of that remains true and how much is merely a cankerous sore of popular perception that media has allowed to fester is widely-debated.

* [[https://www.tofugu.com/japan/nishinari/ Nishinari-ku]] in Osaka, Japan, considered the slum of Osaka and the most dangerous place in Japan. It is infamous for multiple rioting incidents, strong {{Yakuza}} presence and the largest red-light district in Japan. It is almost literally on the WrongSideOfTheTracks from the much more upmarket Namba district to the north.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania Christiania]] in Copenhagen is a rather odd example. Originally the area was a military installation in the city (it's last major use was to execute war criminals after World War II), which was taken over by students, artists and hippies and turned into a commune in 1971 when the military abandoned it. In the decades since, the area has been in a weird legal limbo similar to Kowloon, with different governments trying on and off to shut the commune/free state down, with no success. As a result, minor crimes, most famously open sale of marijuana, are not only common, but part of the communes fame. Hard drugs have been inofficially banned by the residents since the late 70's, but are still a problem.

* The ironically named Good Luck Alley in ''Disney/BigHero6'' and ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries''. In the film it's where illegal robot fights take place, the series extends it being where you go for other illegal contests and to buy military-grade robot parts without needing to explain what you want them for.

* King's Landing in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is itself quite the ViceCity with large areas of various flavours of WretchedHive from docksides to Red Keep to the Great Sept and just beyond the city walls. But, it also has the unabashedly down-at-heels, twisty and very old Flea Bottom found within spitting distance of the great and the "good" up on either Aegon's (the Red Keep) or Visenya's Hill (the Great Sept), where you would be best served by picking up your pace and getting your sword or knife out and ready if you're even remotely well-dressed, riot or not. And, never, ever enquire too hard as to [[MysteryMeat what goes into the bowls of brown]] served there in potshops and "inns". [[ImAHumanitarian You might]] just [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies find out]].

* Inverted in a lot of real-world cities, where the fact that you can buy old houses extremely cheap makes them prime locations for gentrification. For example, The Lanes in Brighton, a warren of winding roads and crooked houses that is the remnants of the original fishing village, is nowadays full of ridiculously expensive boutiques and restaurants.
* Hitrovka in [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Imperial-era]] Moscow. Overlaps with OutlawTown, since it was an area which was a "safe haven" of sorts for gangsters, escaped convicts and the like. Ironically, it sat right between the bustling Kitai-Gorod business district and several affluent residential neighborhoods in the downtown area, whose inhabitants had to see (and ''smell'') its unsavory character every day, but nobody could do anything about it, so much was the influence of the landowners, who reaped enormous profits from the area. The district was purged clean by Bolsheviks after UsefulNotes/RedOctober.
** Now it's Southern Butovo, Tekstilschiki and the Southeastern borough in general, and the entire suburb of Mytischi. (The most crime-ridden district, Golyanovo, has the crime rate but lacks the reputation). Though usually the worst you could expect is to be separated from your cash and cellphone. Lethal muggings are much rarer than they were back then.
** Now there's a popular theory exists that Khitrovka's reputation of a criminal hell-hole was artificially inflated by the leading journalists of the time, such as Vladimir Gilyarovsky, because, well, [[MoneyDearBoy criminal stories simply sold better]]. In reality it was something like Kowloon below — [[WrongSideOfTheTracks a simple dirt-poor neighborhood]] where some criminals had set their shop. Another point is that Gilyarosky was a Communist and had used a quarter's reputation (that he himself helped to build) to criticize the Tsarist Government.
* Kowloon Walled City in UsefulNotes/HongKong used to be a living poster-child example of this trope, complete with being made of nothing but cramped back alleys in between buildings with tiny little shacks selling all sorts of socially unsavory stuff. It has since been demolished and replaced with a handsome park.
** Kowloon situation was much more complex. While its hard to deny that TriadsAndTongs had definitely set shop there, they tended to watch their step, and most of the district's population were simply poor people trying to scrape by. Most of the Walled City's problems stemmed from its weird legal status (theoretically it was a Mainland China enclave within the Hong Kong territory, which prevented the city's utilities and police from operating there), and the fact that it was situated under the approaches to the city's Kai Tak airport, so no highrises could be built there, and people tried to use the available space as efficiently as they could. In the end of its life, when agreement with the mainland authorities permitted Hong Kong's services to operate inside the Walled City, the situation there markedly improved, but its reputation was already set in stone and in 1993 it was finally demolished.

* Several parts of London have been this at various points in its history - Southwark of 500 years ago was famous for its brothels (licensed by the local bishop!) and St. Giles was the place the police would only go en masse.

** Becomes a NonindicativeName in the case of the RealLife Narrows, which is a tidal strait separating Brooklyn from Staten Island; similarly, the nearby neighborhoods of Bay Ridge (Brooklyn) and Shore Acres (Staten Island) are quite nice middle-class neighborhoods of stand-alone houses.

-->-- ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', '''Terry Pratchett'''

** Even the MILITARY doesn't go there. During ''Discworld/NightWatch'', 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.