The four Smiths shoulder to shoulder against a pale wall, Marr in round dark glasses, Morrissey in an open white shirt — Rourke, Morrissey, Marr and Joyce, 1984. Paul Cox; Distributed by Sire Records · Public domain

Black-and-white portrait of the four Smiths, Morrissey in a chunky knitted jumper at the front, Johnny Marr in dark glasses behind — Joyce, Morrissey, Marr and Rourke, 1984. Paul Cox; Distributed by Sire Records · Public domain

Morrissey in a loose silky shirt, hand on his chest, with Joyce, Rourke and Marr standing in shadow behind him — Morrissey, with the band behind him, 1985. Anton Corbijn; Distributed by Sire Records · Public domain

Stretford · Manchester · Salford · Stockport · London · 1982–1987

The SmithsKings Road to Oak Street, 1976–2024

A letter typed in Stretford, a first gig on Whitworth Street, four people under a sign in Salford and a last encore in Brixton.

Paste up in

Posters pasted up in brick.

Kings Road, Stretford · 8 September 1976 and 1982

Knock three times.

A front door in Stretford. Nobody yet.

A private house. Named here, never mapped; leave the people who live there in peace.

Sources

The first year · October 1982 to October 1983

Shake the gladioli.

From the early gigs on, Morrissey strewed the stage with gladioli and daffodils, waved bunches round his head and showered the crowd with petals. Shake the bunch, or wiggle the pointer across it. Each petal that falls is a place.

4 petals to fall. Shake.

1
2
3
4

The Smiths played their first gig at the Ritz in October 1982, as local support to Blue Rondo à la Turk, in front of about 300 people.

Dale Hibbert played bass that night. Andy Rourke joined after.

Sources

Locke

Whitworth Locke

74 Princess Street, Manchester

About 160 studios and suites, each with its own kitchen, in a 19th-century building on Princess Street in the city centre, handy for the Ritz and the Haçienda site. Parking is £24 a night.

Check rates

The red-brick corner entrance of Salford Lads Club, green double doors under its sign — Salford Lads Club, April 2023. Ridiculopathy · CC0

Coronation Street, Salford · Winter 1985

Salford Lads ClubFour under the sign.

Step the four into the doorway.

The doorway is empty.

The Groves brothers, brewers, founded the club in 1903. Robert Baden-Powell opened it officially on 30 January 1904.

The Smiths Room opened in June 2004, in a space that began as a fives court and later served as a changing room and a weightlifting room.

Open days are Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10am to 2pm, and entry is free. The Smiths Room is usually open, depending on how the building is being used that day. Personal photographs are welcome in the visitor areas; ask before photographing young people, staff or other visitors.

Sources

Salford Lads Club

Salford Lads Club open days

Coronation Street, Salford · Free · donations welcome

Volunteers open the club on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10am to 2pm; walk round at your own pace, Smiths Room included when the building allows. Groups and school visits are arranged ahead through the club’s enquiry form.

Plan a visit

Five rooms, 1983–1987

The studio log.

THE SMITHS · SESSIONS

Pluto Studios, 1983.

Pluto StudiosManchesterNot mapped

Pluto Studios

The producer John Porter re-cut the Smiths’ first album at Pluto, with about five or six days to do it.

Pluto’s chief engineer, Phil Bush, remembered the band laying down live basic tracks with a guide guitar until the rhythm track was right.

The studio belonged to Keith Hopwood, once a guitarist in Herman’s Hermits, who wrote TV and radio jingles there.

Named, not mapped: there is no checked address to send you to.

Sources

Stone gate piers and closed iron gates under trees, a road leading in — The main gates on Barlow Moor Road, September 2023. Ridiculopathy · CC0

Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton · 5 km south of the Ritz

Through the gates.

Morrissey wrote Cemetry Gates after walks round Southern Cemetery.

Now: the main gates, 2023.

It opened in 1879. With more than 400,000 burials, it is the largest municipal cemetery in the UK. Tony Wilson is buried here too.

A working cemetery, open to walk through. Be quiet near funerals and mind the graves.

Sources

Brixton Academy · 12 December 1986

One more. Then none.

The Smiths played their last proper gig here on 12 December 1986, a benefit for Artists Against Apartheid.

It replaced a show set for the Royal Albert Hall on 14 November, postponed after Johnny Marr’s serious car crash.

1Main set
2First encore
3Second encore

The main set opens with the newest single.

Craig Gannon had already left, so they played as a four-piece. The building opened in 1929 as the Astoria cinema and became Brixton Academy in October 1983. It is Grade II listed.

A working venue, now the O2 Academy Brixton: book a gig to go in.

Sources

The Academy’s domed corner entrance on Stockwell Road in sunshine — Brixton Academy, June 2024. Matt Brown · CC BY 2.0

1987, and 2024

After the split.

A tall brick tower with a crenellated top against a pale sky — The ventilation tower of HM Prison Manchester, Strangeways, 2011. Crispin Semmens · CC BY 2.0

September 1987 · HM Prison Manchester, north of the city centre

Strangeways

The last Smiths album, Strangeways, Here We Come, takes its title from Manchester’s prison, since renamed HM Prison Manchester.

The second half of the title is borrowed from Keith Waterhouse’s Billy Liar. It came out in September 1987, after the band had split. It reached number two in the UK chart.

A working prison. Its tower is a landmark; see it only from the streets around it.

Sources

The Wool HallBeckington, near Frome, SomersetPrivate · not mapped

1987

The Wool Hall

The Smiths recorded their last album, Strangeways, Here We Come, here in 1987.

Tears for Fears made the Wool Hall their own studio, in a 16th-century wool store, and opened it to other musicians in 1986. Van Morrison bought it in 1994. In 2018 the last of its equipment went to auction before the building became homes.

Sources

Johnny Marr in a navy jacket and checked shirt outside a glass building — Johnny Marr in 2012, twenty-five years after the Wool Hall sessions, at the University of Salford. University of Salford Press Office · CC BY 2.0

A huge black-and-white painted portrait of Andy Rourke with his bass on a black pub wall — Akse’s mural of Andy Rourke on the Wheatsheaf, Oak Street, November 2024. Ben r02 · CC BY-SA 4.0

November 2024 · The Wheatsheaf, 30 Oak Street, Northern Quarter

Andy on the wall

Andy Rourke, the Smiths’ bassist, died of pancreatic cancer in May 2023.

Mike Joyce launched a crowdfunder with the charity Pancreatic Cancer Action to paint a mural of him. The street artist Akse painted it on the side of the Wheatsheaf, in the Northern Quarter, an area close to Rourke’s heart.

It is based on a black-and-white photograph taken by the band’s tour photographer, Nalinee Darmrong, in 1985. It went up in November 2024. A QR code beside it leads to information about pancreatic cancer.

Mike Joyce in a black coat, arm raised, in front of the giant mural of Andy Rourke — Mike Joyce at the mural, November 2024. Ben r02 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Painted on the gable wall of a working pub: free to see from the street.

Sources

Visit

Where it is now

9 places you can visit. Morrissey’s old home on Kings Road, Jacobs Studios and the Wool Hall are private, and Pluto Studios has no address to send you to, so none of them is on the map.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working venue, now the O2 Ritz: book a gig to go in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The club has gone. Flats called the Haçienda stand on the site, with a plaque outside: see it from the pavement.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working cemetery, open to walk through. Be quiet near funerals and mind the graves.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working prison. Its tower is a landmark; see it only from the streets around it.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Painted on the gable wall of a working pub: free to see from the street.

The Ritz on Whitworth Street West, September 2020. Ardfern · CC BY-SA 4.0
Whitworth Street West, city centre
The Ritz
The Smiths played their first gig at the Ritz in October 1982, as local support to Blue Rondo à la Turk, in front of about 300 people.
A working venue, now the O2 Ritz: book a gig to go in.
Sources
The Haçienda apartments, on the club’s old site, September 2010. User:Hassocks5489 · CC0
Whitworth Street West, city centre
The Haçienda site
The Smiths played the Haçienda early in 1983. The gig was videotaped, and it brought their first live review in the NME.
The club has gone. Flats called the Haçienda stand on the site, with a plaque outside: see it from the pavement.
Sources
The main gates of Southern Cemetery on Barlow Moor Road, September 2023. Ridiculopathy · CC0
Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton
Southern Cemetery
Morrissey wrote Cemetry Gates after walks round Southern Cemetery.
A working cemetery, open to walk through. Be quiet near funerals and mind the graves.
Sources
The ventilation tower of HM Prison Manchester, Strangeways, 2011. Crispin Semmens · CC BY 2.0
HM Prison Manchester, north of the city centre
Strangeways
The last Smiths album, Strangeways, Here We Come, takes its title from Manchester’s prison, since renamed HM Prison Manchester.
A working prison. Its tower is a landmark; see it only from the streets around it.
Sources
Akse’s mural of Andy Rourke on the Wheatsheaf, Oak Street, November 2024. Ben r02 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Wheatsheaf, 30 Oak Street, Northern Quarter
Andy Rourke mural
Andy Rourke, the Smiths’ bassist, died of pancreatic cancer in May 2023.
Painted on the gable wall of a working pub: free to see from the street.
Sources

Stay