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Shot on loca­tion dur­ing its five-year run on HBO, Bal­ti­more was more than a back­drop and set­ting for The Wire. From its cor­ners to its class­rooms to the cor­ri­dors of power, the city was the prism through which issues and themes were refracted.

Here fol­lows some of The Wire’s more iconic locations.

THE PIT

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One of the major venues for the Barks­dale crew were the Pit and the Tower, based on the McCol­lough Homes on the west side and other sim­i­lar projects such as the Poe Homes and Lex­ing­ton Ter­race. Nearly all of Baltimore’s high-rise hous­ing projects were demol­ished years ago.

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HAMPSTERDAM

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Bal­ti­more never actu­ally had “free zones” with open drug mar­kets, as envi­sioned by Bunny Colvin. The film­ing loca­tion used for the first and largest of the free zones — known as Hamp­s­ter­dam — was near Broad­way and Gay streets. The homes in this area have been demol­ished and the blocks are now open space. This stretch of Lex­ing­ton Avenue runs through what was sup­pos­edly Hampsterdam.

COLLINGTON SQUARE

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This east­side park, with a com­mand­ing view over­look­ing the Johns Hop­kins med­ical cen­ter and the water­front in the dis­tance, was the loca­tion of sev­eral meet­ings dur­ing the course of The Wire. The eastside-westside bas­ket­ball game was played on the court here.

LITTLE JOHNNIE’S

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The dock­side S. Clin­ton Street restau­rant where Vonda and the Greek hung out. Marlo met them here a cou­ple of times as well. Inter­est­ingly, the loca­tion of the Major Crimes Unit build­ing is just down the street.

ORLANDO’S

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Orlando’s strip club on South Broad­way was the base of oper­a­tions for Avon Barksdale’s crew dur­ing the first sea­sons of The Wire, until ambi­tion got the bet­ter of Orlando. As it was dur­ing film­ing, the loca­tion is actu­ally a strip club — the Ritz Cabaret. Stringer Bell’s copy shop is just a few doors down at 510 S. Broadway.

MAJOR CRIMES UNIT

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From this small dock­side build­ing on a des­o­late stretch of South Clin­ton street, Lt. Daniels, Lester Frea­mon and other mem­bers of the major crimes unit played a never-ending game of cat and mouse with vio­lent drug gangs, mob­sters and cor­rupt pub­lic officials.

MARLO’S COURT

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The ambi­tious and ruth­less Marlo Stan­field met in this secluded park near Chase and Bond Streets. Herc lost a sur­veil­lance cam­era here as well.

LANVALE & BARCLAY

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Sev­eral loca­tions were used as drug cor­ners dur­ing the film­ing of The Wire. The inter­sec­tion of Lan­vale and Bar­clay was Bodie’s spot dur­ing the fourth season.

THE RIM SOURCE

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At the inter­sec­tion of North and Gay, the Rim Source, with its win­dows dis­tinc­tively out­lined with blue neon lights, was one of Marlo’s meet­ing spots.

JOHN’S RADIO & TV

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Propo­si­tion Joe ran a repair shop at 301 S. High­land in High­land­town, most recently a jew­elry repair shop but presently vacant.

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