Address Chelsea Savoy Hotel 204 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011, USA

In 1883, when it was built, the Chelsea was the tallest building in New York. This apartment complex was transformed in 1905 into a hotel specialized in long stays. Since then, perhaps because of its neo-Gothic style, the Chelsea Hotel has attracted a certain category of clients. Poets in particular. Still rather dashing in appearance, the establishment hides rooms that are already worn out, bathed in what the writer Jean-Claude Carrière once described in his book, Les années d’utopie, as “a smell of dust that belongs only to this hotel… A smell of urban swamp”. An atmosphere that attracted artists such as director Miloš Forman, Mark Twain, Arthur C. Clarke, Allen Ginsberg, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jack Kerouac, Dee Dee Ramone and Patti Smith. The latter contributed to make the place one of the nerve centers of the beat generation. Later, several musicians settled there, often during periods of distress. It was here that Nancy Spungen, the girlfriend of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, died on October 12, 1978, allegedly following an argument with the musician. People come to the Chelsea to find inspiration, to cut themselves off from the world or to get clean. People also come to live love stories in a bubble as if cut off from the outside world.