Clarion Alley - A Gallery Without Walls

A stop on San Francisco, District by District, a free self-guided tour.

Clarion Alley, the narrow lane between Mission and Valencia Streets just south of 17th Street, is an outdoor gallery that changes all the time. The Clarion Alley Mural Project started in 1992, when a group of artists began painting the garage doors, fences and back walls of the block with the owners' permission.

Since then hundreds of murals have come and gone. Many respond to the issues of their day, from housing and immigration to war, and the project regularly paints over older work to make room for new voices, so what you see is never quite what the last visitor saw.

Walk the full block from Valencia to Mission. People live and work here, so keep the alley and the garage doors clear.

More on Wikipedia: Clarion Alley

Stops on this tour

  1. Ferry Building and the Embarcadero - Where the City Met the World
  2. Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
  3. Chinatown - The Neighborhood That Refused to Move
  4. North Beach and Telegraph Hill - Little Italy and the Beats
  5. Fisherman's Wharf - Italian Boats and Old Ships
  6. Nob Hill and Russian Hill - Cable Cars, Mansions and the Great Fire
  7. The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate
  8. Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood
  9. Haight-Ashbury - From Victorian Suburb to Summer of Love
  10. Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park
  11. The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement
  12. The Mission - Where San Francisco Began
  13. Civic Center - Domes, Charters and Protest
  14. South of Market - From Rincon Hill to the Tech Boom