Corner Shop

The Corner Shop in Coronation Street is a general provisions and off-licence which has been owned by Dev Alahan since 1999. It is located at 15 Coronation Street and has been in business, in various guises, since 1902. Its current operating name is D&S Alahan's (the S stands for Dev's wife Sunita Alahan).

The shop has been refurbished several times, most notably in 1985 when Alf Roberts converted it into a self-service mini-market, converting much of the space taken up by the shop's ground accommodation (where the owner generally lived) to extend the shop space. Above the shop is Flat No.15a, the ownership of which is tied to the shop and is usually rented out or used for storage.

Previous shop owners:


 * Cedric Thwaite 1902-1915
 * Tommy Foyle 1915-1945
 * Elsie Lappin 1945-1960
 * Florrie Lindley 1960-1965
 * David and Irma Barlow 1965-1968
 * Maggie Clegg 1968-1976
 * Renee Bradshaw/Roberts 1976-1980
 * Alf Roberts 1980-1993
 * Brendan Scott 1993
 * Alf Roberts 1993-1994
 * Reg Holdsworth 1994-1996
 * Maureen Holdsworth 1996-1997
 * Fred Elliott 1997-1999
 * Ravi Desai 1999
 * Dev Alahan 1999-present.

Its current front counter assistant and till operator is Sophie Webster.

Operating history
The Corner Shop was the first building to be seen in the first episode of Coronation Street. At the time, Elsie Lappin was the owner. She was about to hand the shop over to Florrie Lindley as Elsie was moving away from Weatherfield.

The first owner of the shop was lay preacher Cedric Thwaite who owned the shop from the opening of the shop from 1902 to December 1915. He married Lottie Hofner in 1910 and she moved into the

shop with him. In December 1915, Cedric sold the shop to Tommy Foyle, who moved in with his sister Amelia. Amelia died from the flu in 1919.

The next person to move into the shop was Lil Makepiece, who married Tommy Foyle in 1923. Tommy became a young widower in 1927 when Lil died of bronchitis. Tommy re-married in 1930 to variety singer Elsie Castleway. Their first child, Hilda, was born in 1933 followed by their second daughter, Shelagh, in 1935. Elsie became a young widow when Tommy died suddenly during the end-of-war street party on 8th May 1945. After his death, Elsie became owner of the shop. Elsie re-married in 1947 to Les Lappin. He died in January 1952.

The next person to own the shop was Florrie Lindley, who ran the shop after Elsie retired to Knott End in December 1960 until she reconciled with her estragned husband and moved with him to Canada on 2nd June 1965. During Florrie's tenure the shop frontage was altered with a new window and doorway. Shortly after that, ex-army seargent Lionel Petty bought the corner shop after his daughter Sandra persuaded him to do so (she was trying to revive her short-lived "romance" with Dennis Tanner). Sandra moved out after a few months. Lionel was rarely seen and in January 1966, he decided to give up the shop, selling it to David and Irma Barlow. David and Irma had a rocky start to their marriage and in 1968 the couple decided to emigrate to Australia.



In April 1968, Les and Maggie Clegg bought the shop, but due to Les's alcohol problem Les and Maggie got a divorce and Les gave the shop to Maggie as a settlement. In 1970, Irma returned to Coronation Street a widow as David and her baby son Darren had been killed in a car crash in Canada. Irma took on the job of shop assistant, to help out Maggie for a while. On 8th July 1974, Maggie married Ron Cooke. The couple decided to emigrate to Zaire and the shop was rented to Tricia Hopkins mother, Vera. After the Hopkins family left, Blanche Hunt was employed to act as caretaker manager of the shop until she left in 1976. The shop was then run by Gail Potter and her friend Tricia.

In 1976, Renee Bradshaw bought the shop and applied to become an off-licence. Annie Walker opposed the idea but Renee won the application. In 1978, Renee married Alf Roberts and the following year Alf decided to give up his job at the Post Office to spend more time helping Renee in the shop. Renee died in a road accident in 1980 and Alf inherited the shop. He ran it with the help of Deirdre Langton, who continued to work there until 1987.



In 1985, Alf changed the structure and layout of the Corner Shop. The shop was extended into the back room and the staircase that had been there since the street was built in 1902 was removed. The words CORNER SHOP were displayed in large red letters on the main shop sign with "Alf's Mini Market" painted on the window. The upstairs bedsit was renovated into a more comfortable flat with a separate entrance built in Viaduct Street. Alf opened the new shop in September 1985 and in December of that year he married Audrey Potter, who joined him in working in the shop part-time. Sally Webster began work as Alf's assistant in 1987.



Alf decided to retire from the shop in 1993 and sold the Mini-Market to Bettabuy manager Brendan Scott. Brendan was hoping to open a chain of shops he planned to call 'Best Buys' and saw the Coronation Street shop as the first rung in his empire. He later decked the shop out as an old fashioned grocery under the new name 'Scott's Provisions'

Brendan's dream was not fulfilled as shortly after opening the business he died of a heart attack on the shop floor. Alf Roberts bought the shop back, but soon sold it on to Bettabuys manager Reg Holdsworth for £68,000. Reg ran the shop with his wife Maureen and her mother Maud Grimes. Reg and Maureen later divorced and she took the shop in the settlement, renaming it 'Maureen's Mini Market'.



In 1997, Maureen married Fred Elliott but left him within days. Fred managed to buy the shop back, renaming it 'Elliott's' and installing his nephew (later to be revealed as his son) Ashley Peacock as manager, with Maud still working there.

In February 1999, Fred sold the shop to Ravi Desai, who installed his daughter Nita and sister-in-law Maya as staff. After only ten months in charge, in December, Ravi sold the Corner Shop and six other shops in the area to his nephew Dev Alahan.

In November 2004, Dev's empire of Corner Shops and Mini-Markets went up in smoke when his vengeful and unbalanced ex-girlfriend Maya Sharma systematically burned down the businesses over one November night. As Dev raced around Weatherfield to the shops, Maya took his new wife Sunita hostage.



When Dev returned he was also gagged and bound while Maya torched the shop. Dev and Sunita were rescued but the Corner Shop exploded in a ball of fire, gutting the building. Maya then tried to run the Alahan's down, but failed as a lorry entered the street, hitting her car. She was killed instantly.

Dev rebuilt the Corner Shop but his relationship with Sunita ended in early 2006. She had recently given birth to their twins Aadi and Asha when she discovered that he had several secret children with former staff members. For a time, Dev ran the shop employing his daughter Amber Kalirai, Molly Dobbs and Sophie Webster. Sunita returned to work at the shop in 2010 after being reconciled with Dev.



In December 2010, three weeks before Christmas, the shop was destroyed when it was hit by a derailed tram. Sunita, Molly and her baby Jack were trapped in the rubble following the accident. Whilst Sunita and Jack escaped with relatively minor injuries, Molly died before she could be freed.

During the tragedy, £5,000 of the shop's takings were stolen by Becky McDonald to pay half-sister Kylie Turner for custody of Kylie's son Max. The rebuilding of the shop was halted when it emerged that Dev had not insured the business and was not able to afford the work. Feeling guilty over the theft, Becky's husband Steve gave the Alahans the money after a casino win, claiming he had stolen it from them himself.