Manchester

I had one sole purpose for visiting Manchester - The Coronation Street Tour.  

The Corrie Tour was one of the goals of my trip to England. So I was more than a bit dismayed when I was experiencing difficulty purchasing tickets on line. I tried to research a bit more about the tour and discovered that it was on for a limited time only. Originally, the tour was meant to last until October 4, 2014. But I could see the date that I wanted, October 20 on the ticketmaster site, I just was unable to purchase a ticket. So, while I was in York, I called ticketmaster and was able to purchase my ticket over the phone. TG.  

My tour time was 11am. I decided to walk to the site. It took about 20 minutes and I arrived early. I gave my reference number to the gentleman who was at the gate and he gave me a lanyard and my tickets. Since I had a bit of time, I headed to the cafe where I enjoyed a cup of tea and watched the Coronation Street special I had seen at home that described the move to the new set.  

The Coronation Street Tour takes place at the Granada Studio. This studio was the third site for the filming of Corrie. The site consists of the indoor studio which houses the sets for the indoor scences of the show and the outdoor studio which houses The Street.  

I was called to my tour a bit early as the previous times were not at capacity. Our group met our guide and she told us that she thought the reason that there were smaller groups than in the past was due to the fact that the tour had meant to be finished BUT they had been given permission by the city of Manchester to extend the tour into 2015. So thank God for small miracles.  

We started our tour outside of the studio and entered via the entrance that only the stars of the show used when it was a working set. The first place we entered was the Green Room. This is where the stars would sit and wait for their call to come on set.  

We walked along a corridor. There were a number of very small interior rooms that were the dressing rooms for the cast. At the end of the corridor we were led into the wardrobe room. In there, we were told about how clothes are purchased for the characters based on their personality. For instance, Emily rarely has new clothing as that would be very out of character for her. Whereas Maria has clothes purchased from the High Street in Manchester. Roy's clothes come from ebay. Roy's carrier bag is definitely the actor's mom's bag as was confirmed by his mom when she toured through the set. We were shown Carla's wedding dress, some of Becky's extremely small clothing, and a number of Jack's polo shirts. Within this room there was a small section that demonstrated how the hair and make up area of the site would have looked. We did not go into the actual hair and make up area as that was upstairs and our tour took place solely on the ground floor.  

Next, we were led into a small, dark room with benches and a large screen. We were treated to a 5 minute video with past clips from the show. It was fun to see past characters again.  

Following the video, we went into the studie. The first set we came to was Carla Connor's old apartment. Then it was the Platt's household. The unbelievable thing about the sets is the extremely small size of them. I can't even imagine how Gail, David, Kylie, Audrey, Nick, Max, Lily, and Gail's current love interest could fit in the front room of the set. It is just tiny. The rooms look larger than they do on tv, that's for sure. These sets both had three walls. The "fourth" wall is non existent so that filming can take place.  

Then it was on to the Rovers Return Inn set. This set was a bit different than the previous two. The Rovers Return had four real walls. Each of these walls could be pull out in full or in sections depending on how filming was going to take place. The windows may also be removed so that the camera could film through them to the benches inside. Then, we were all admitted through the famous doors. We were allowed to sit at in the pub, look around, touch anything that we liked. Our guide said that we may have our picture taked behind the bar. She asked if there were any volunteers to go first and I stood up immediately and said, "I will." This made her laugh as she said she generally had to prod to get someone to go first.  

So, I became a barmaid in the infamous pub for a few short moments. I pulled a pint. I had my picture taken. This picture became the only souvenier I have purchased thus far.  

Next we moved on to the set of Underworld. We also saw Hayley's coffin and Fred Elliot's coffin (which has been used repeatedly since Fred's death for the funeral of other characters). We also saw the set of one of Ken's love interests/affairs. This woman lived on a barge and therefore we saw the set of the boat. Next, it was onto the Duckworth's home. A tv was playing, showing clips of Jack and Vera. Some hilarious, some very moving.  

We were brought to the next spot that was a display case that housed different items from the show, including, the most expensive item - Deirdre's glasses.   We were then led through the production rooms.  

Our final stop was the outdoor sign for Nick's Bistro. The round topped doors were opened for us as the famous Corrie music was played and we entered onto the street.   The outdoor street set was awesome. Again, the set seemed so much smaller than on tv. Everything was compact. I was able to walk down Coronation Street and onto Rosamond Street. I passed by the bus stop. It was awesome to be able to walk on the famous cobbles. We were permitted to take as many pictures as we liked of the outdoor set. I took a lot of photos. I even got someone to take a picture of me outside of Rovers Return Inn.  

Once I had finished all of my photo taking and looking around, I went into the Medical Building to pick up my barmaid photo, which is awesome.   The tour was everything that I hoped it would be and more!  

After the tour, I decided to walk down to the new set of Coronation Street. This was about a 35 minute walk away from Granada Studio. The new set is housed in an area of Manchester called Media City UK. This is a really impressive part of town. It is located at the water's edge where all of the old docks used to be. There is a university campus there. BBC HQ and ITV HQ is also located there.  

There was no possibility in getting close to seeing inside of the new set but it was still neat to be able to see where the set had been moved to.  

Manchester is the second biggest city in England after London. My trip there consisted of The Coronation Street Tour, walking, reading and relaxing. It was a great couple of days.  

Next stop Gloucester.