I recently spent an interesting few hours in the famous Coronation Street having bought some tour tickets for £16.50 online. Tickets can be bought at the gate for the same price. Waiting for your time slot in the small courtyard outside the studio there is a cafe and time to take some photos of that well known street sign. Once your tour guide arrives exactly on time you join a group of approx twenty people and go inside the studio. Sitting in the room where until recently the actors would collect their scripts and practices their lines a brief history of the show is told. The show has now moved to a new venue but that only happened in December 2013. Walking past changing rooms and lockers we are taken into a vast studio space. Here well known living rooms, staircases and the sewing factory, seem insignificant next to the Rovers Return. This is the were so many tales have been spun and dramas created and who can forget Bet Lynch or Betty`s hotpots. Everywhere in the studio are stunning black and white photos of stars past and present. Costumes and even coffins are displayed alongside the interior sets. Then the doors open and you are out into the famous street itself, where all the exterior shots are taken. It is fun to walk along by the Kabin, see the Rovers and the blue cladding of Vera`s and Jack`s terrace. You can take photos in the street itself but not in the studio but you are allowed to have an official photo taken behind the bar in the Rovers. These cost £7.50 for one or £10 for two. A nice way to spend a few hours if your are in Manchester. There are a few two hour parking spaces in the nearby street but with vigilant traffic wardens I would head for one of the nearby multistory car parks.
