The Guardian

‘They are holding on to a dream’: the last bohemians at New York’s Chelsea Hotel

A young Patti Smith playfully leans over a rooftop wall, her raven-black hair tangling with the wind as she points towards the stiletto nib of the Empire State Building in the distance. “Dylan Thomas used to hang out on this very roof!” says the singer. “I’m sure he threw up one too many rums.” She laughs, then turns to face the camera. “I’ve always wanted to be where the big guys were, you know?”

This is the opening of Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotela film about the famous New York landmark. In the course of its 138-year history, this 12-storey Victorian gothic

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