United States · Missouri · St. Louis
The Grove, St. Louis — Area Guide & Where to Stay
The Grove is the bar, restaurant, and club strip of Forest Park Southeast, running along Manchester Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri.
About The Grove
Where to stay in The Grove
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Manchester Avenue is the address. Sleeping in The Grove means a room on or just off the stretch between Kingshighway Boulevard and Vandeventer Avenue, within walking reach of the restaurants, bars, and clubs the strip is known for, a good share of them LGBT-oriented. Manchester Avenue was built as retail frontage, never as lodging.
That is the older logic of the Manchester Strip, which served the working households of Forest Park Southeast long before the drinking crowd found it.
About The Grove
What are the main landmarks in The Grove?
The frontage is the attraction. Named buildings gather around The Grove rather than on it: the Saint Louis Science Center and the James S. McDonnell Planetarium, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, and the Saint Louis Chess Club all sit off the strip, in the wider run of St. Louis around Forest Park Southeast. Manchester Avenue keeps its own list.
Between Kingshighway Boulevard and Vandeventer Avenue the draw is a continuous line of restaurants, bars, and clubs, the thing the district was rebranded to sell.
What is the history of The Grove?
The retail came first. Manchester Avenue was built up in the late 19th century as a shopping drag serving the working households of Forest Park Southeast, and the stretch carried the name Manchester Strip before The Grove replaced it. The name change came with a levy.
A community improvement district drawn around the businesses here in 2009 charges them an added sales tax, and the proceeds pay for infrastructure and for the branding work that carries the district's name.
Where is The Grove?
Kingshighway Boulevard closes one end of The Grove and Vandeventer Avenue the other, with the Manchester Avenue frontage of Forest Park Southeast in between.
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Updated September 2026