Remains of Ian Curtis's Macclesfield, Cheshire

As shown above, the former Labour Exchange in Armitt Street, Macclesfield, has now been converted into flats. Ian Curtis of the band Joy Division worked here as an assistant disablement resettlement officer. It was very close to his home in South Park Road.

Unknown Pleasures (1979) was Joy Division's first studio album, the first released in Curtis's lifetime, and such is the iconic nature of the album sleeve (designed by Peter Saville) that there is no need to mention either band or singer.

The Regency Mill roundabout, site of the Talbot pub where Joy Division used to rehearse and eat on occasions. The leaflet Unknown Pleasures: A Walk around Joy Division's Macclesfield (2010), published by the Silk Heritage Trust, mentions that the eccentric landlord (whose name may have been Tony) owned an ostrich whose eggs he used to serve omelettes in the pub.

(I previously published an external photo of 77 Barton Street and Curtis's memorial in Macclesfield Crematorium elsewhere on this blog.)