Coronation Street, Weatherfield

Coronation Street is a street in Weatherfield which connects Rosamund and Viaduct Streets, the main routes into Manchester. Although subject to extensive redevelopment since the 1960s, much of the Street survives in its original form since its construction 1902 as a row of seven Victorian terraced houses, bookended by the Rovers Return Inn pub and a Corner Shop. The Street, with its distinctive vintage cobblestoned road separating the north side from the south, was built behind Hardcastle's Mill in Victoria Street, and the Glad Tidings Mission Hall was constructed next door to the Mill along with Coronation Street. Although the south side of the Street has seen many changes, the terrace itself has escaped demolition in an era of vast housing redevelopment and still exists today.

Businesses currently operating in Coronation Street include the Rovers, the Corner Shop, newsagent the Kabin, underwear factory Underworld as well as mechanic Webster's Auto Centre and hairdresser Audrey's.

Construction
The planning of the Street, then intended to be named Albert Street, began in 1900. Located in central Weatherfield and flanked by Rosamund and Viaduct Streets, it was one of the last Streets in Weatherfield to be built. As with most Weatherfield Streets of the era, the houses of the Street were of typical Victorian terraces, built to accommodate the working class. Each house consisted of three bedrooms, a front room, a living/dining room with a coal fire for heating and a small kitchen. They contained no indoor toilets, although outdoor toilets were installed in the backyards.

Construction of the terraces was not completed until 8th August 1902, one day before the coronation of King Edward VII. In honour of his succession, the name was changed to Coronation Street, and the first families started moving into the new houses on the day of the coronation.

The Street also contained a Corner Shop, at the Viaduct Street side, and the Rovers Return Inn pub, at the Rosamund Street side. The Shop contained its own accommodation and flat, while the Rovers (initially named The Rover's Return), owned by brewery Newton & Ridley, was also built with living space for its tenants.

Situated on the other side of the Street were Hardcastle's Mill and the Glad Tidings Mission Hall, although both buildings were technically part of Victoria Street, which lay opposite Coronation Street. The Mill, which pre-dated the Street, was a major centre of employment in the area and many of the residents worked there. The Mission Hall was built at the same time as Coronation Street, the construction of which was actually the reason behind the decision to build the Mission. Serving the religious needs of the Christian residents, the Hall was used for weekly Sunday services, and its vestry had an entrance on Coronation Street used by the caretaker.

Development
After World War II, areas of Weatherfield started being re-developed, with demands for more housing resulting in Victorian terraces being emptied and demolished and replaced with tower blocks or more modern structures. In 1961, a rumour spread among the residents that Coronation Street was to be pulled down, although it was safe on this occasion as Ena Sharples had actually misread a notice about Coronation Terrace.

Nevertheless, the Street did face re-development in 1968 when the council bought the Glad Tidings Hall and factory with a Compulsory purchase order and demolished them both, to make way for a new block of council-owned maisonettes to be built on the site. The building consisted of three one bedroom, single storey OAP flats and four two-storey maisonettes above them. The maisonettes were not a success - they were cheaply built and were damp, and several lay empty. In 1971, Valerie Barlow, who lived in the maisonettes at No.14, died when she was electrocuted by a faulty plug socket. This led to a fire. Although the flats were saved, the council decided to demolish them, deciding they were not safe to live in.

Further rebuilding took place on the site following the fire. At the viaduct end of the Street, a Community Centre was built, complete with a small flat for a caretaker. Beside the Centre, a warehouse was erected, despite protests from local residents. The warehouse was bought by Mark Brittain, a mail order catalogue company, which used the premises until the building was gutted by fire in 1975. The following year, Mike Baldwin, a London businessman, bought the building, renovated it and opened a denim factory called Baldwin's Casuals.

In 1989, deciding that the locals no longer needed a Community Centre, the council sold the site to Maurice Jones, a local property developer. Jones also approached Mike Baldwin and made an offer to buy the factory, and Baldwin agreed to sell. The residents of Coronation Street were shocked to wake up on the morning of 20th September 1989 to find that the Community Centre and the factory were being demolished. In their place came a whole new development of homes and businesses.

Rita Fairclough moved her newsagent business, The Kabin, from Rosamund Street to a site in the news development where Ena Sharples' vestry had once stood. Beside the Kabin was a garage MVB Motors, a business investment of Mike Baldwin's which was run by Kevin Webster. Also at the viaduct end of the Street was a small factory unit. Mike Baldwin opened another business in the factory, originally as a printing company, until in 1997 he started up Underworld, a company that produced lingerie. This factory has since changed hands.

Beside the factory a row of three houses were built, larger than the terraced houses on the other side of the Street, and each with their own small back garden. At the end of the street, opposite the Rovers Return, another shop unit was built. At first, Emily Bishop ran a charity shop in the unit, although since 1992 it has operated as a hairdressing salon.

Despite the many changes made to the south side of the Street, the north side remains relatively unchanged, although modifications and improvements have been made to individual houses both inside and outside, and the middle house, No.7, was rebuilt in 1982 after collapsing in 1965 as a result of a shift in the mine workings upon which the street was built.

The original, distinctive cobbles on the Street still remain in place. Weatherfield Council intended to dig them up and replace them with tarmac, but a campaign to save the cobbles was set up by the residents in December 2000, and had a successful outcome, with a fake preservation order for the cobbles fooling the council into ordering the tarmac crews to leave the Street alone.

North side
The Rovers Return Inn (or simply The Rovers) pub is situated at the corner of Coronation and Rosamund Streets and is the central meeting place of the residents. Originally subdivided into the Public, Snug and Select, the Rovers was refurbished in 1986 after a fire gutted the pub. The decision was taken to remove the Snug and Select and expand the Public. The living area of the Rovers comprises a sitting/dining room and kitchen on the ground floor. There is also a flat upstairs containing bedrooms and another living room and kitchen.

Owners Newton & Ridley sold the pub to Jack and Vera Duckworth in 1995 and since then it has been privately owned, although the brewery continues to supply the pub's ale. The current owner is Steve McDonald, andLiz McDonald is licensee and landlady. Past tenants and licensees have included Annie and Jack Walker, Bet and Alec Gilroy and Shelley Unwin. Liz currently lives at the Rovers along with Steve, his wife Becky and his daughter Amy.

1 Coronation Street is the leftmost terraced house and is adjacent to the Rovers. Albert Tatlock lived there from 1918 to his death in 1984, and the house is currently the home of Ken and Deirdre Barlow. In 1981, the front parlour was converted into a bedroom for Albert. The room has since housed Blanche Hunt.

3 Coronation Street, next door to No.1, is home to Emily Bishop and Norris Cole, Emily having lived there since her marriage to Ernie Bishop in 1972. Aside from the renovation of one of the bedrooms into a bathroom, no major improvements have been made to the house.

5 Coronation Street is the next house along and has been lived in by the Langtons, the Tilsleys and the Battersbys. When builder Ray Langton moved into the house in 1977, he knocked away the wall between the front parlour and the living room, making No.5 the first of the terraced houses to be made open plan. Fiz and John Stape currently live in the house with Fiz's brother Chesney Battersby-Brown.

7 Coronation Street was built by Len Fairclough in 1982. The original No.7 was demolished in 1965 after a faulty beam caused the front of the house to collapse and the space had been occupied by a bench for most of the intevening years. As a result the brickwork of the house is noticeably newer than its neighbours. No.7 was also made open plan at some time in the 2000s. Maria Connor currently owns the house but no one is living there at the moment.

9 Coronation Street is the home of Tyrone Dobbs, who bought the house from Jack Duckworth in 2008. Aside from a brief spell at the Rovers, Jack lived there with his wife Vera from 1983 until Vera's death in 2008. In an effort to make the house look better than its neighbours and increase its value, Vera had the front stone-clad in 1989 and renamed it "The Old Rectory" in 2002, although her efforts actually had the opposite effect.

11 Coronation Street was the longtime home of the Tanner family and later the McDonald family. Eileen Grimshaw currently lives there with her partner Jesse Chadwick and lodger Sean Tully, who sleeps in the front parlour, which has been converted into a bedsit.

13 Coronation Street is the rightmost house of the terrace and is currently lived in by the Peacock family. The Ogdens lived there from 1964 to 1987, and the Websters from 1986 to 2008. The Ogdens left their mark on the house with a self-made serving hatch from the dining room to the front room, and a mural covering an entire wall in the dining room, which has since been removed.

The Corner Shop at No.15 borders Viaduct Street, and is one of a chain of shops owned by Dev Alahan, although the Coronation Street shop is the only one actually managed by Dev. The shop has been refurbished several times, most notably in 1985 when owner Alf Roberts converted it into a self-service mini-mart, converting much of the space taken up by the shop accommodation to extend the shop space. Prior to 1985, the Shop's owners generally lived in the ground floor accommodation. The shop was also refurbished in 2004 after a major fire.

15a Coronation Street is the flat above the Corner Shop. Although most shop owners have rented it out, some have chosen to use it for storage. The entrance to the flat is actually in Viaduct Street although its address is in Coronation Street. Molly Dobbs currently lives there.

South side
2 Coronation Street is a business unit, built as part of the Street redevelopment in 1989. The premises was first used as a charity shop run by Emily Bishop but in 1992 Denise Osbourne opened a salon there. The business was taken over by Fiona Middleton in 1996 and the current salon, Audrey's, is owned and managed by Audrey Roberts.

2a Coronation Street is an upper-level flat situated above the salon. It is empty at the moment.

4 Coronation Street is the rightmost house on the south side of the Street, built in 1989, and home of the Websters since 2008. Past residents include Mavis and Derek Wilton and the Peacocks. The house was gutted by a fire in 2007 and extensively refurbished afterwards.

6 Coronation Street is the middle house on the Street's south side. Its first residents were Des and Steph Barnes, and over the years it has also been home to the Harrises and the Mortons. In 2007, Tracy Barlow killed Charlie Stubbs in the house. Eddie and Anna Windass currently live there.

8 Coronation Street is the leftmost house in the south side of Coronation Street and original occupant Gail Platt still lives there with son David and husband Joe. It is the only house in the Street to have a garage attached.

The Kabin at No.10 is a newsagent owned and managed by Norris Cole. The Kabin was opened in Coronation Street in 1990 by Rita Sullivan, who moved it from its Rosamund Street premises and managed it until her retirement in 2009, although it was briefly owned by Sharon Gaskell in 1999. In 2000, Rita opened a post office in the shop, although it has since been closed.

10a Coronation Street is the flat above the Kabin. Rita Sullivan has lived there, with a few breaks, since opening the shop in 1990.

12 Coronation Street is a second-level flat adjacent to the Kabin flat, currently owned by Jason Grimshaw and Tina McIntyre. When Alec Gilroy lived there in 1998, he built a door between the two flats which was removed at some point after he moved out.

16 Coronation Street is a business unit, originally used as the premises for MVB Motors. Kevin Webster owns and manages Webster's Auto Centre, with Tyrone Dobbs as partner.

Underworld is an lingerie-making business, occupying the largest building in Coronation Street. The factory was first opened by Mike Baldwin in 1996 and it stayed in the Baldwin family until Mike's sons Danny Baldwin and Adam Barlow sold their shares to Liam and Paul Connor in 2006. Paul's widow, Carla Connor, currently owns and manages the factory and employs several of the Street's residents as machinists.

Demolished buildings
Elliston's Raincoat Factory was originally Hardcastle's Mill, which was opened in 1882 (before the rest of the Street was built). The Mill closed during the Depression in 1931 and was replaced by the coat-making Elliston's Factory. The output of the factory was changed to PVC hats and coats in 1966, although the factory was sold to the council in 1967 when the council was seeking to redevelop the Street. Factory workers included Christine Hardman, Sheila Birtles and Bet Lynch.

The Glad Tidings Mission Hall was a community hall used by a Christian evangelical movement. It was an important part of the lives of the Street residents early in the Street's history, but congregations thinned in number in later years and in 1965 it faced closure until it was merged with the Bold Street Mission. Ena Sharples was the Mission's caretaker and lived in the Vestry, although she resigned when the Mission was used as a Community Centre in 1966, only returning when the Centre closed. The Mission was closed for good in 1968 when it was purchased by the council, which pulled it down shortly afterwards.

The Maisonettes were a block of two-storey apartments that were built by the council in 1968. Their architecture was in keeping with the brutalist style that was fashionable at the time. Home to Ena Sharples, Ken and Val Barlow and Effie Spicer, the flats were demolished when an electrical fault in the wiring resulted in the death of Valerie Barlow, and the council deemed them unsafe.

The Community Centre was owned by the council and was built in 1971. For much of that time, Ken Barlow served as Community Development Officer. The Centre was used for a variety of functions including wedding receptions, clubs, discos, parties, and meetings, the last such building to provide such facilities to exist in Coronation Street. Ena Sharples worked as caretaker for the centre and lived in an adjacent flat, which had its own entrance onto Coronation Street. The flat was later lived in by Percy Sugden. Property developer Maurice Jones purchased the Centre from the council in 1989, and demolished it in readiness for his Street redevelopment.

The Mark Brittain Warehouse was a mail-order firm managed by Julius Berlin, built after the maisonettes were torn down in 1971. Ken Barlow also worked there as staff supervisor, and Gail Potter, Tricia Hopkins, Ivy Tilsley and Edna Gee were employed there. When a fire gutted the warehouse in 1975, the business folded. The following year, it was renovated and became Baldwin's Casuals, owned by Mike Baldwin. The denim-making business ran until 1989 when Mike sold it, at a high price, to Maurice Jones.

Other information

 * Coronation Street's postcode is MMO 77G.