The Upper West Side is a neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River above West 59th Street.

Like the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side is primarily a residential and shopping area, with many of its residents working in more commercial areas in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. While these distinctions were never hard-and-fast rules, and now mean little, it has the reputation of being home to New York City's liberal cultural and artistic workers, in contrast to the Upper East Side, which is traditionally home to more conservative commercial and business types. The apartment buildings along Central Park West, facing the park, are some of the most desirable apartments in New York. The Dakota at 72nd St. has been home to numerous celebrities including John Lennon. Other famous buildings on CPW include the Art Deco Century Apartments (Irwin Chanin, 1931) and the Majestic also by Chanin. The San Remo, Eldorado (with the highest sum of Democratic presidential campaign contributions by address in 2004), and Beresford, were all built by Emery Roth, Along Broadway are several Beaux-Arts apartment houses, the chaste Apthorp (1908), the Belnord (1908), the Ansonia Hotel (1902) and the Dorilton. Riverside Drive also has many beautiful pre-war houses and larger buildings, including the graceful curving apartment buildingsThe Paterno and The Colosseum by Schwartz & Grossat 116th St and Riverside Drive. The northern stretches of Columbus Avenue are graced by the post-modern landmarks, The Westmont and its sister building, the Key West.

The Upper West Side has been a setting for many movies and television shows because of its pre-War architecture, colorful community and rich cultural life. Ever since Edward R. Murrow went "Person-to-Person" live, the length of Central Park West in the 1950s, West Siders scarcely pause to gape at on-site trailers, and jump their skateboards over coaxial cables and it seems that one or another of the various Law & Order shows is taking up all the available parking spaces in the neighborhood. Woody Allen's film Hannah and Her Sisters captures that quintessential Upper West Side flavor of rambling high-ceilinged apartments bursting at the seams with books and other cultural artifacts.