Rear Window is set in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan, New York, and the entire film takes place in Jeff’s apartment from where he sits in his wheelchair and curiously observes the various goings on of his neighbours. Hitchcock positions the viewer in the place of the protagonist, from where he controls the viewer’s experience, and except for a couple of occasions, limits the information available to the viewer to be only that which is also available to the protagonist. At the time of the film, Greenwich Village was known as the heart of American bohemianism, a home of artists, writers and poets, of art galleries, alternative theatres, nightclubs and coffeehouses. It would also become a location significant to the emergence of the counterculture and LGTBQI movements in America.

Jeff’s apartment complex is densely constructed and several stories high, reflective of the architectural design of inner-city residences, and the neighbours live in overwhelmingly close proximity to one another. There are small plots of gardens on the ground floor courtyard, some of which appear to be communal, around which the apartment complex forms a border. The lack of personal space and privacy seems to reinforce a sense of voyeurism and suspicion; residents seem resigned to living a fishbowl life, their daily life easily visible to their neighbours, and they have to resort to closing their window shades whenever they want privacy. Adding to the stifling sense of enclosure is that the film is set in the warmer months when getting fresh air means opening windows or, in the case of the older couple, sleeping on the fire escape external to their apartment. This further obscures the boundary between private and public, making the attraction for the voyeur easier as he speculates about the intricacies of the lives of his neighbours.