Handball Courts

Handball courts turn Thompson Street’s green wedge into one of the city’s few outdoor venues where the game never leaves the sidewalk. Handball Courts sits hard by the FDR’s shadow in the Lower East Side, a place where the neighborhood’s usual rhythm of foot traffic pauses for a volley or a serve. Players arrive with bright gloves and scuffed balls, and within minutes the echo of rubber off concrete carries east toward the river.

The park stretches from East 3rd to East 4th just west of Pitt, its backstop flush against the chain-link that separates tennis from handball. The address—84-120 Thompson Street New York, NY 10012—is easy to spot if you’re walking north from Houston: the single court is framed by the brick bulkhead of PATH’s ventilation shaft. Aim for the chain-link fence and you’re there.

You can ring 212-533-4567 for league schedules, but most players just show up when the court lights turn amber. Grab a spot under the sycamores and watch the game unfold; the map will get you there: Thompson Street’s handball haven. Sunday afternoons it stays lively until the last serve bounces into the dark.