Delancey Street is one of the main thoroughfares of Manhattan's Lower East Side, running east from the Bowery to connect to the Williamsburg Bridge to Brooklyn. Businesses range from delis to check-cashing stores to bars. Delancey Street has long been known for its discount and bargain clothing stores. Famous establishments include the Bowery Ballroom, built in 1929, Ratner's kosher restaurant (now closed), and the Essex Street Market, which was built by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to avoid pushcart congestion on the neighborhood's narrow streets. As the Lower East Side becomes gentrified, more upscale retail and nightlife establishments have moved in. Delancey Street is named after James De Lancey, Sr., whose farm was located in what is now the Lower East Side.

The F, J, M and Z subway trains stop on Delancey at Essex Street. The J, M, and Z trains also stop at Delancey Street near the Bowery. The M9, M14 and M15 buses stop at Delancey Street, and the B39 bus traverses the Williamsburg Bridge.

From west to east, Delancey Street starts from the Bowery, intersects Chrystie Street, Forsyth Street, Eldridge street, Allen Street, Orchard Street, Ludlow Street, Essex Street, Norfolk Street, Suffolk Street, Clinton Street, Attorney Street, Ridge Street, Pitt Street, Columbia Street (Bialystoker Place), and Lewis Street, and ends at the East River (FDR) Drive. The street is known as Kenmare Street west of the Bowery.