The Wire Tour
Photo: Peter Fitzgerald, OpenStreetMap [1], CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Wire Tour is a grand tour of Baltimore, taking you past various important filming locations for the highly acclaimed HBO TV series, The Wire. It is a driving tour 54 miles long (87 km) past 54 filming locations. It would take about 3½ hours without stopping at the sights, but to properly do the tour, you'll want to make stops for photos, food, and general gaping. It's wise to plan for a full day.
PrepareFirst, watch The Wire. The whole thing. Otherwise do not read beyond this section, as major spoilers follow!
Get inThe tour begins on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, heading north from I-395 off I-95. To get there from Downtown or the Inner Harbor, take any major road and head west, then turn right (north) onto the boulevard.
Get aroundBring your car.
EatThere are lots of great places to eat filmed in The Wire, all of them dripping with local character and a real sense of place. Look for them in the following sections of the tour, and plan to finish on a full stomach!
The tourWest Baltimore is where it all begins, right on Lexington and Fulton Ave where Snot Boogie, the man of unfortunate name and unfortunate life laid dead in the street.
Further outA few scenes from the series were filmed outside of the Downtown area.
DrinkThis tour purposefully ends in Central Baltimore. You've completed a tour around much of the city, including some of its more interesting and decidedly less visited neighborhoods.
RespectThis part is crucial. The hand-wringing associated with the terribly distasteful and offensive term "ghetto tourism" is a bit overwrought and contrived, but there are pitfalls to be aware of.
Stay safeDon't worry. Yes, you are touring some high-crime areas (although the vast majority of the areas on the tour are actually quite safe), but no one is going to bother you in your car. Period.S. are grossly exaggerated.
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "The Wire Tour" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Peter Fitzgerald, OpenStreetMap [1], CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons