1982 Outdoor Set

1982–present
In 1982 an almost full-size exterior street was built in the Granada backlot, with the cobbles running in the correct direction. The new set was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1982.

Since it was intended to be permanent, the houses were constructed from reclaimed Salford brick and roof slates to give an authentic look. The buildings are not complete, most lacking interior walls. The chimneys are made of fibreglass since there is insufficient support for brick ones. The building interiors are used as offices for writers and as store rooms for props used in outdoor shooting, aside from the take away, butcher shop and betting shop, which are built so that filming can be done inside them. However, in preparation for the switch to High Definition, the chimneys are now made of real brick.

In the following years staircases were added inside the doors of the houses. A number of Granada tower blocks dominate the skyline around the set. These are usually obscured through careful camera angles.

The door next to Audrey's salon leads to a flat above the salon itself, which is actually the supporting artists green room, and consists of two simple rooms, one with chairs and a sink/wash area for extras, and the other used as a costume change area.

Towards the end of the 1980s scenes filmed on the exterior set became more numerous after the show's location work switched from film to videotape in 1988, although some outdoor video shooting, using large, tethered cameras, had been trialled as early as 1977. More trials were conducted with a PSC (portable single camera) unit for the Rovers Return fire episode in 1986.

1989 saw large development of the Coronation Street set. The factory and Community Centre which had occupied the site since 1971 were demolished. Three new houses, two shop units, a garage and a factory were built on the site. These developments were the idea of new executive producer, David Liddiment.

When the Granada Studios Tour was closed in 1999 the exterior set was extended and updated. The derelict Graffiti Club on Rosamund Street was revamped and reopened as a medical centre/surgery. A new street, Victoria Street, was built to house three shops and two houses. A builders' yard backing onto the betting shop was built. To obscure one of the Granada Television buildings a new viaduct was built on Rosamund Street. This sits behind the Rovers and parallel to Coronation Street; this introduced an error, as it does not appear in the opening titles aerial shots of Coronation Street. The "viaduct" is actually a façade with an optical illusion to make it look complete. A backdrop of some Salford streets was erected in 2005 allowing shots to be filmed looking up Rosamund Street and creating the illusion of other dwellings further along that street.

At the end of Coronation Street there is a fictitious tramline which has seen CGI trams used over it in the past (notably the opening titles and when Kelly Crabtree left the long running drama.) However in the past when filming in the backyards the end of the "bridge" has been quite clearly seen which may explain the erection in a facade of houses to hide this fact. The storyline for December 2010 (Coronation Street's fiftieth anniversary) showed the viaduct collapse, sending the tram onto the cobbles, demolishing the Kabin and the Corner Shop in the process.

There has been speculation within the broadcasting industry over the future location of the permanent set, as ITV have been mulling plans for the whole of the Quay Street site. One of many options under active consideration includes moving Granada to a new headquarters in Trafford Park, across the water from the forthcoming MediaCityUK in Salford, which would result in the outdoor set moving permanently out of Manchester for the first time in its history. However, it is understood that there is some opposition within Granada to this proposal, with the alternative being a re-development of the main building, leaving the set, sound stages and The Bonded Warehouse (Granada's new headquarters) as they are.

Apart from the Rosamund Medical Centre, Prima Donner and Barlow's Bookies none of the properties on the backlot contain any interiors; they are merely empty shells used for storage and filming equipment.