"Walking the Cobbles of Coronati ..." a Manchester Travel Page by tvor

I've been a fan of Coronation Street since 1989. Most of my online "world" is corrie and corrie friends that i've met through newsgroups, bulletin boards and chat rooms. I've met many of them in "real life" and we've become very good friends. To coincide with Corrie's 40th anniversary on the air and a couple of people that planned to visit Manchester, what turned out to be a little get together of manchester locals and the few visitorts turned into an international "convention" of online corrie fans!

Three of the Manchester locals banded together to organize things from that end and one of the three, who used to do some freelance work for Granada television investigated whether we could, as a group, get a visit to Granada and the outside corrie street set authorized. Granada had ceased public tours but were still conducting reduced versions for corporate groups. We didn't know until nearly the day of if it was going to be allowed.

About 20 of us arrived in Manchester the weekend of Sept 16/17 or just after. A mini bus was hired and day trips out to see the countryside areas were organized. We all chipped in on the cost for the bus and the gas. All week 18 of us squashed into the van and saw the sights of the Peak District, the Lake District, York and Blackpool. Some people broke off on their own and took day trips to Liverpool and London and we all met up in the evenings for meals, a theatre outing and a barbeque at one of the local's homes.

By Saturday we knew the Street Visit was a go!!! the rest of the crowd had arrived through the week and gathered Friday night for the barbeque. Saturday we met for lunch at the Ox on Liverpool road, around the block from Granada. When we duly made our way to the studio, we were about 45 in numbers.In to the complex, through a darkish tunnel where an old Baker Street set was, out into the sun ... There's Coronation Street!!! I can't believe I am actually standing on the cobbles of Coronation Street!!! The first bit you see is the new "Victoria Street" development that is parallel to the "Street", with "Rosamund street connecting them. I was so excited I didn't know which way to look first! Well of course...The Rovers!

Everyone gravitated there first then we all scattered in all directions, exploring. The din of camera shutters echoed, I swear! The Rovers, the Kabin, The Corner Shop, the yellow and blue stone cladding! The Cobbles! Up and down I walked taking pictures, having my photo taken and taking other people's photos. One house, Number5, was open but there was just some things stored in it and a staircase. I do know that there are writers' conference rooms built into the upstairs, where it's not individual houses but all one or two big rooms.

We spread out and explored up the back alleys and around the houses, taking loads of photos of ourselves in front of the pub, and the shops. We had some group photos taken in front of the Rovers Return, splitting up into geographical groups, the East Coast Canadians, the Ottawa, the southern Ontario and the UK/Rest of the World group before the "Everybody" group shot.

It was really great! We had the whole set to ourselves. No sharing with other tourists and fans! But alas, our half hour or so was up and we were led back through the complex. They did open the gift shop for us so we all crowded in there and happily picked over the souvenirs.

Some of us returned to the Ox for a drink and that night we all gathered at a pub called the Southern in Chorlton just outside Manchester for a dinner and dance. The party went on into the wee hours for some, who carried on at the home of one of the Chorlton partier residents. Some of us returned to the Dolby hotel and chatted in the hotel bar until quite late as well. Sunday came. A last meal at Harry Ramsden's and it was good bye!!! We had such a wonderful week bonding with so many online friends that we had all become close to yet never met face to face in most cases. Something i'll never forget!

The full description of the week's events for me is here: http://members.accesswave.ca/~tvor/uk2000b.htm

A dream come true! A friend had a connection to Granada Studios and had got a private invitation to the set. She got permission to invite us as guests so i finally found myself on the inside, viewing sets and props, getting inside info and taking as many pictures as i could in the hour long visit we were allotted!!!! We saw most of the major sets aside from the Kabin which was dressed and ready for afternoon shooting.

We saw backstage, we saw sets in the process of being built and also taken apart and shifted. There was a short staircase that went nowhere, not sure which room it belonged to. Not all the sets are permanent as there isn't the room. Many of the sets are in Stage One but quite a few have been moved to the newer building, Stage Two. The outside buildings are basically storefronts and shells but the Bakery is a workable set as is the butcher shop. Behind the doors of the knicker factory used to be the actual Underworld set but it was so cold that the actors' complaints finally had an effect and a large new factory set was built. The old Underworld set is now a police station on the inside but still has the same exterior for outside shots. All the other outside houses have space inside the doors for actors to go in and out off.

The ultimate set is of course the Rovers. Disappointingly, we didn't spend as much time as we would have liked to but they had it set up and lit for shooting later. The lighting also played havoc with camera settings so our photos came out either too bright or too dark. A little judicious work with photoshop makes them ok. We didn't get a chance to sit in one of the booths for photos. We spent our time behind the bar looking around and having photos taken.

The sets for all the rooms are small, smaller even than we expected. I can't imagine how they can have a crowded pub or cafe and not be bumping into each other and wrecking the place.

Visiting the inside studios really was a dream come true!