Joker Stairs

In the Bronx, there’s a staircase with 132 steps — and every single one of them is famous. This is the West 167th Street step street, where Joaquin Phoenix danced his way into film history as Arthur Fleck in Joker (2019). Before the movie, it was just a local shortcut between two avenues. After the movie, it’s a global landmark, a meme factory, and one of the most visited staircases in New York City.

The Scene

Joker (2019), directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix, filmed all over the New York area, but this stairway got the showpiece moment. Throughout the film, Arthur Fleck is shown trudging up and down the steps as part of his bleak daily routine — a visual shorthand for his uphill battle with life. Then, toward the climax, everything flips: transformed into the Joker — rust-red suit, green hair, white clown face — he dances down the same stairs in slow motion while Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2” pumps away. The drab commute becomes a coronation. The image landed on the film’s promotional posters, and fans have been recreating the dance — sometimes in full clown regalia — ever since. The stairs even returned for the 2024 sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux.

The Backstory

Long before the Joker came to town, these stairs were just a very practical piece of Bronx engineering. The western Bronx is hilly, and when the borough urbanized in the early 1900s, some of the streets were simply too steep for cars. The city’s answer was the “step street”: an open-air masonry staircase built in place of a road, giving pedestrians a way to travel between streets at different elevations. There are more than 100 step streets across New York City, and over half of them are right here in the Bronx.

The West 167th Street Stairs — also known as the “Shakespeare Steps” — connect Shakespeare Avenue and Anderson Avenue in the Highbridge neighborhood. For locals, they’re not a movie set; they’re a daily commute. That everyday reality is what makes the location perfect for Joker: Arthur Fleck is just another guy climbing the same stairs, until suddenly he isn’t.

What to Look For

Start at the top and look down: the full 132-step run framed between brick apartment buildings is the money shot, the exact angle from the film’s poster and the dance scene. Look up toward Anderson Avenue at the top of the stairs: the building with the distinctive three arches is the exterior used as Arthur Fleck’s apartment building in the film. One important note: this is a real neighborhood thoroughfare. Residents use these steps every day, and they’ve grown understandably weary of selfie-stick traffic jams — Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx, even asked fans to stay away to avoid disrupting locals. Visit in the daytime, be quick, be courteous, and keep the stairs clear for the people who live there.

Getting There

Address: 1165 Shakespeare Ave, Bronx, NY 10452 — in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, at West 167th Street between Shakespeare and Anderson Avenues.

The easiest route is the subway: take the 4 train to the 167 St station, then walk west along 167th Street to Shakespeare Avenue — about a three-minute walk from the station to the stairs. Once you hit Shakespeare Avenue at 167th, look for the long staircase wedged between the apartment buildings climbing up to Anderson Avenue — you can’t miss it.

Trivia

• Filming here meant coordinating with local residents who use these 132 steps as their daily commute — and the crew reportedly used giant “sun-swatter” screens to keep the lighting consistent across the long concrete stretch.
• The stairs have been compared to the Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art — a once-ordinary staircase turned into a pop-culture pilgrimage site by a single unforgettable scene.
• Locals complained that tourist crowds clogged the stairs during their daily commutes — a rare case of a film location’s fame becoming a genuine neighborhood headache.

The Hunt Clue

“One hundred and thirty-two steps of stone, where a lonely clown walked all alone. To earn your badge and clear the way, find the street named after the man who wrote the play!”