Former Coronation Street set demolition: Campaign to save site

The Victorian terrace is the memorable part of the set, according to campaigner Juliet Cusimano

Campaigners are fighting to save the former Coronation Street set in Manchester from demolition.

Developer Allied London bought the Quay Street site in a joint venture with Manchester City Council and plan to build flats, shops and offices there.

The set had been used from 1982 until January of last year when the ITV soap moved to MediaCity UK at Salford Quays.

An online petition has been set up to prevent the set, which was refused listed status, being knocked down.

Juliet Cusimano who launched the petition is calling on developers to retain the Victorian terrace featuring the Rovers Return Inn and the soap's corner shop in their regeneration of the 13-acre site.

'Ena Sharples'

She said it was "the most memorable part of the set... the image you first think of when you think of Coronation Street."

"At the moment when you walk down the cobbled street past the Rovers Return or go inside the pub interior, you're having the unique experience of walking where Ena Sharples, Annie Walker, Bet Lynch, Hilda and Stan Ogden, Vera and Jack Duckworth, Elsie Tanner, Alf Roberts and many other famous and much loved characters have walked before you.

"You'll never have this experience at the new set in Salford because these characters or the actors who played them have retired or died."

Jonathan Hughes from All About Soap magazine said "culturally it's a very, very important site" and knocking it down would be "a disgrace".

"People come from all over the world to see Coronation Street," he said.

"If they were going to knock down Paramount Studios in Hollywood, where there's been films made for nearly 100 years, people would be up in arms."

Ms Cusimano said the petition was in response to a public consultation on the project known as St John's Quarter.

English Heritage rejected the application for listed status for the old Granada Studios site made by an anonymous individual in 2012 because it was not historic enough.

Allied London and Manchester City Council have so far been unavailable for comment.