San Luis Obispo, California

San Luis Obispo's Bubblegum Alley

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum

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The Bubblegum Alley to end all Bubblegum Alley's is located in San Luis Obispo, CA. There the Bubblegum Alley is a local tourist landmark and called the towns "most-talked-about landmark."

65 feet long and 15-feet high, this alleyway began in the 1950s, though it is unclear exactly how or why it began. Among the favorite of the explanations is a rivalry between the San Luis Obispo High School and Cal Poly students.

What has been more impressive is the gum alley's tenacity. Fully cleaned twice in the 1970s it came back each time. By the 1990s the gum alley had been there for so long that when the local business association tried to have it cleaned once again, they were politely told no.

The gum alley is by far the most famous in the world and has been featured on The Tonight Show, MTV, That's Incredible!, Real People, PBS and written about in newspapers from the San Francisco Chronicle to The Guardian in Manchester, United Kingdom.

The local business, however are less enthused about it and still feel that the alleyway should be cleaned up, or gated in the night when people leaving local pubs tend to leave both gum and bodily fluids behind.

  • Hours
    24 hours
  • Website
  • Address
    733 Higuera Street, San Luis Obispo, California, United States
  • Cost
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Map/Directions
Between 733 and 734 Higuera Street downtown.
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