Change has come to the northwest corner of 12th and Broadway once again. That corner is particularly dear to me for a couple of reasons. For a start, I lived on that block between 1996 and 2003. More to the point, though, that corner served as the original home of a place I've sung about a few times here already, that being the New York flagship outlet of England's sci-fi/comics stronghold, Forbidden Planet. To a slavish comics geek in the `80s like myself, Forbidden Planet was practically sacred ground. It ended up moving across the street to the corner of 13th and Broadway some time at the dawn of the `90s, which I thought was a damn shame. There was actually a second NYC location of Forbidden Planet in the East 50s for a short while, but that's long gone.
In any case, after Forbidden Planet, the space on 12th street was nothing for a great while before becoming a shoe store in the late `90s of no great consequence called No Difference. As it happens, No Difference has since closed (or simply changed its name and moved to a smaller space a block to the south). Personally speaking, I'd LOVE to see Forbidden Planet move BACK to that original location, but that's probably not going to happen (although rumors abound that it's looking for a bigger space).
In any case, I found the top picture below of the corner in question in this sprawling collection of NYC photographs from the `70s. I have no idea when it was taken (nor who took it), but it's a cool shot. Beneath it is a shot I spoke about on this post, featuring Fobidden Planet circa 1989. Last is the current Google Maps take on same.
What will be there next, one wonders.
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