Coronation Street producers have revealed plans to allow the public to walk down the famous cobbles at its former home Quay Street next year.
The ITV show will move to their new set at MediaCityUK early next year, vacating the current set which has been used since 1982.
The street has not been opened publicly since 1999 when fans could walk down the cobbles as part of Granada Studio Tours.
Now, subject to planning permission, fans of the show can experience the home of household names from Deirdre Barlow and Roy Cropper to Julie Carp and Beth Tinker.
The plans are for the street to be opened for six months from next Spring.
Visitors will be able to witness the site of so many iconic TV moments since the show launched in 1960.
See where Tracy Barlow survived in a lorry crash in 1979 outside the Rovers Return, the site of the live episode tram crash in 2010, and where Eileen Grimshaw found love after getting her head stuck in railings above the knicker factory in 2011.
ITV said fans would get a ‘wonderful opportunity to visit and experience the set’.
Coronation Street is a national tradition and millions of people across the country tune in every episode to see the stories unfold.
While the long term future of the Quay Street set remains uncertain, this move to open the set up to the public offers the street a short term fix.
A bid last year to give the soap’s set listed status was turned down by English Heritage who said it was not historic enough.
The set has been rebuilt at MediaCityUK to cope with the upgrades to high definition television.
So while there is a new Underworld, a new Roy’s Rolls, a new Kabin and a new conservatory for Sally Webster, the old set at Quay Street is not to be forgotten by the British public.
Image courtesy of Allan Lee via Flickr, with thanks.
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