13 Coronation Street

13 Coronation Street is the address of the rightmost residential house on the terraced side of Coronation Street, Weatherfield. Built with the rest of the row in 1902, it is situated between 11 Coronation Street and the Corner Shop.

Past residents include Christine Hardman, Jerry and Myra Booth, Stan, Hilda and Irma Ogden, Eddie Yeats, and Kevin, Sally, Rosie and Sophie Webster. From 2008 until his death, it was owned by Ashley Peacock and lived in by Ashley, his wife Claire, and their children Joshua and Freddie.

The house contains a dining room, hall, kitchen and small front room on the ground floor, and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the upper floor. It also has an outside toilet in the backyard. Distinctive features include a serving hatch between the dining room and front room.

Perhaps due to the house number, the house has been rumoured in the past to bring back luck to its residents.

1902-1930
Construction of 13 Coronation Street took place between 1900 and 1902. It was built at the same time as the other houses in the Street, and was of a typical Victorian terraced house design, on two-levels.

Work on the house was completed on 8th August and the first residents, elderly twins Lizzie and Enid Harrison, moved in on 17th August. The other houses had been let to young couples with children and hardworking families, but as the Harrisons were close friends of Mabel Grimshaw, who owned all of the houses in the Street, they were secured a house and allowed to live there rent free. Lizzie and Enid were somewhat isolated during their time in the Street, as they didn't socialize with their neighbours and spent all of their time together. They were both killed in a train crash in December of that year.

The tenancy was given to Fred Piggott, a foreman at Hardcastle's Mill across the Street. Fred moved into No.13 with his wife Emma and their young sons Vic and Bob. Fred and Emma both worked but Emma later gave up work to look after the boys. A trade unionist, Fred organised a strike in 1911 which involved workers in mills and factories across Weatherfield, and ended with the workers being granted better working conditions and a minimum wage of one pound a week. During the Great War, Vic and Bob both signed up for the Lancashire Fusiliers and were killed on the Somme. Emma was stricken by grief and died from influenza in 1918. Fred couldn't face life alone and moved to Norwich to help his sister run a draper's shop.

Gardener Tom Lingard and family were let the house in January 1919, having been secured the house at the insistence of Charles Hardcastle as a thank you to Tom's wife Nellie for her years of service at the Mill. Their children were Ada (born in 1913) and Mary (born in 1921). The Lingards lived comfortably on Tom's wages from a contract for landscaping the area around the new Town Hall. The work was completed in 1928, but the family got little chance to celebrate Tom's success as he went missing in January 1929, failing to return from work. A few weeks later, his body washed up under Blackpool's Central Pier. Nellie couldn't support the children on her own and the family was taken into council care.

1930-1964
Married couple George and May Hardman moved into the house in 1930. The Hardmans were were well-off in comparison to most of their neighbours and were able to employ Mary Hewitt as a housekeeper, as May wasn't a good cook and rarely cleaned, preferring to spend her time doing needlework. George was a bank teller but saved much of his money so that he could eventually realise his ambition of owning a grocery shop. Their daughter Christine was born in 1939, and when George signed up with the Navy at the outbreak of World War II, May evacuated to the countryside with Christine. May's sister Madge Mason lodged at the house until 1940 when she was killed when she was caught in the fallout when 10 Mawdsley Street was hit by a bomb during the Manchester Blitz. The Hardmans were reunited after the War and in 1953 George moved the family to a detached house in Oakhill, finally spending his savings.

Liverpudlian Kezia North rented the house for a short time in 1954 but moved away as she found life in Weatherfield too boring.

In 1955, Corner Shop owner Elsie Lappin persuaded the house's owner to let No.13 to May and Christine Hardman, who had been left homeless after George died owing money to creditors. Christine relished the chance to return to her old home and friends, and took a job at Elliston's Raincoat Factory, but May was ashamed at returning to Coronation Street after experiencing a better life and, already considered a snob by the neighbours, became a recluse. May suffered from a brain tumour which led to a spell in a mental hospital and later her death in the house's hallway in 1960. The rent collector, Mr Wormold, allowed Christine to go on living in the house but increased the rent. Christine later suffered from depression, culminating her her contemplating suicide by jumping off the roof of Elliston's factory. After being talked out of it by Ken Barlow, Christine quit her job and left the house to live in London with new boyfriend Colin Appleby.

In 1963, apprentice builder Jerry Booth bought the house for £525 and moved in with wife Myra. The couple lived there for a less than a year as by May 1964 they had become overwhelmed by debt due to Myra overspending on Hire Purchase. Myra's father George Dickinson let them move in with him and handled the sale of the house back to Wormold.

1964-1987: The Ogdens
The Ogden family moved into the house in July 1964 when Stan Ogden tracked down his errant daughter Irma, who had run away from home after one of Stan's frequent drunken rages. Stan swore he was turning over a new leaf and bought No.13 for £550 as a sign that he was sincere. With him came his wife Hilda and children Irma and Trevor, although Trevor ran away from home later in 1964, leaving a note asking his parents to disown him. Irma moved out in 1965 after marrying David Barlow.

Hilda took on a job as a cleaner at the Rovers Return Inn and made looking after Stan her life. Stan was never steadily employed, drifting from job to job, taking on work as long as he had time to pop into the Rovers for a pint of beer after a shift. As such, they struggled with money. Stan left Hilda to pay the bills, leaving her with the burden and the worry that the family would fall into poverty.

In 1970, David Barlow and his son Darren were killed in a car crash in Australia. Irma, who was also in the crash, survived. Stan was loaned £600 by bookie Dave Smith to fly Irma back to the UK, and the widowed Irma moved back in with the Ogdens. In sympathy, the neighbours had given the Ogdens money to pay Dave back, but Stan used the money to invest in the Corner Shop to give Irma a job, and paid Dave back by selling him the house. Irma hated the shop, but worked there anyway to raise the money to buy the house back from Dave. It wasn't until Dave started dating Irma that Stan realised he had made a mistake - Dave was twice Irma's age, and Stan wanted to warn him away, but as he had the power to evict them Stan grudgingly gave his approval. When the Ogdens won £500 on premium bonds, Stan dashed Hilda's hopes of spending the money and used it to pay Dave back. The house was back in his name again.

The 1970s was a period of near-continual bad luck for Stan and Hilda. They never had money to spare for luxuries and until 1976 they didn't have a television licence. They rented a black and white set, which Stan dropped while trying to hide it from the licence company, not knowing that Hilda had just bought a licence. As the TV was rented, Stan set fire to it to lead the company to believe it had burst into flames.

Despite their financial difficulties, the Ogdens rarely took in lodgers. In 1974, Hilda returned from a working cruise holiday to find Stan had taken in Tommy Deakin, Michael Ryan and a donkey, Dolores, and as a result had been reported to the health inspectors. In 1976, ex-convict Eddie Yeats moved into the house as a lodger. Although he didn't live there for long, he was a regular guest after moving out.

The Ogdens' later years in the house were met with further financial woes caused by Stan's declining health, which resulted in him retiring early. In 1980, Eddie became a permanent lodger after getting a job as a binman. Eddie put a chicken coup in the yard, which Hilda was all set to get rid of until Eddie pointed out that their eggs could bring the Ogdens profit. When it was obvious that the chickens were making the Ogdens a laughing stock even more than usual, the chickens were roasted for food.

In 1981, Hilda got the itch to move to a bigger and better house to enjoy retirement and was advised to sell her house for £7000. Stan objected, happy with a simple house with a pub just a few doors away, but Hilda put the house on sale anyway. The Bell family offered them £8000 but they were denied a mortgage so could only afford a house as good as the one they had now, and Hilda turned down the offer. Hilda was starting to dread living out her days in No.13. In 1983, Eddie got married to Marion Willis and moved out, and Terry Duckworth became the Ogdens' lodger for a while in 1984.

Stan died in November 1984. The house was now Hilda's. Feeling lonely, Hilda advertised for a lodger in early 1985, and took in Henry Wakefield. Henry was hounded by co-workers at Baldwin's Casuals when they found out he was a strike-breaker, and he left the Street in shame.

Car mechanic Kevin Webster moved in later in the year, followed by his girlfriend Sally Seddon in 1986. Hilda was pressured into selling the house by Alf Roberts, who wanted to expand the Corner Shop. Hilda thought about accepting, mainly because she was told by Les Pringle that her roof needed repairs, when in fact it was fine. Kevin and Sally were married in 1986 and moved into their own flat. In 1987, Hilda was dismayed to learn the Lowthers, who employed her as a housekeeper, were moving but she was asked by Doctor Lowther to keep house for him and live in a flat attached to the cottage. After 23 years, Hilda moved out of No.13, to a better house and better life, and sold to the Websters at a generously low price.

1988-2008: The Websters
The Websters got off to a bad start in No.13 when they were refused a mortgage because of unpaid debt Sally had from before she met Kevin. They had to pay the debt out of their savings and apply for a mortgage from another building society.

Sally's troublesome younger sister Gina Seddon dumped herself on the Websters in 1988 when her boyfriend Eddie was arrested for stealing a car. Gina was charged with being an accessory and put on probation, which meant the Websters were stuck with her for the time being. When her dad Eddie died Gina took the £1000 from his insurance and disappeared.

With Kevin's steady job at the garage, the Websters usually had more than enough money to live on, so when Sally fell pregnant in 1990 the pair were overjoyed. The couple's first daughter Rosie was born on Christmas Eve. Sally was happy to remain out of work to look after her at first. She later became registered as a child minder when she was in trouble after David Platt fell down the stairs in her house while she was minding him for the Platts. This let her mind children in her own home, including David and the troublesome Jonathan Broughton.

Kevin's life was at the garage rather than at home, at a place where he could use his skills. He wasn't happy at first when Sally announced she was pregnant again in 1994, as he thought they couldn't afford it. Sally took on a job at The Kabin and became friends with Rita Sullivan, who was happy to help the Websters out with money when they needed it. Kevin came around to the idea eventually. Another daughter, Sophie, was born that same year.

In 1995, Kevin's dad Bill Webster returned to Weatherfield after ten years after his wife Elaine had an affair. Having never met Sally, he welcomed her back from a holiday by cooking dinner but burned the kitchen down. Sally was happy to have him live there there anyway as he rebuilt it himself and soon left to move into the Rovers.

After ten years of happy marriage, the Websters split when Kevin had an affair with Natalie Horrocks while Sally was away nursing her mother, who had suffered a stroke. When Sally found out about the affair, she threw Kevin out of the house and he went to live with Natalie, but by the end of the year he had come to his senses and went back to Sally. They got back together on Christmas Day. It wasn't to last, as Sally only really got back together for the kids and had an affair with Greg Kelly in 1998, and when Kevin found out he threw her out of No.13. The couple divorced and Sally moved in with Greg and fought for custody of Rosie and Sophie, eventually winning and moving into No.6 when Greg was violent, leaving just Kevin in No.13. A depressed Kevin thought there was nothing left for him in Coronation Street and disappeared. Sally decided to move back into the house with the girls, until Kevin showed up again having suffered a breakdown. He decided to get on with his life and eventually remarried, to Alison Wakefield. Sally discovered she had unfinished business with Greg, who had been squandering her inheritance and was blackmailing Mike Baldwin over an affair. He let himself into the house and took the girls hostage to force Sally to help him. Sally was able to get help from Kevin and later the police and knocked him unconscious. Sally went on living at No.13 with Rosie and Sophie.

In 2000 Sally started seeing Danny Hargreaves and let him move in with her. They were going to get married but Sally slept with Kevin the day before he married Alison, and confessed to Danny before the wedding, causing him to back out and leave the Street. Kevin, now a widower after Alison's death, suggested he and Sally get back together in 2002. Sally agreed, for the children's sake, but she made him sleep in the front room. Things eventually settled down and they remarried, Kevin because he still loved Sally, knowing full well she didn't love him as she once did.

Bill briefly lived with the Websters again in 2006 while visiting from Germany and started an affair with Audrey Roberts. On Christmas Day his then wife Maureen showed up and found out, and the couple separated. Bill moved in with Audrey in 2007.

Despite things long since having gone back to normal with the Websters' marriage, Sally was unhappy with their two now teenage daughters having to live in a terraced house in a back street. Sally's hopes for a bigger house came to fruition in 2008 when neighbours the Peacocks, who lived at the more modern No.4 across the street, were financially crippled from poor business in Ashley Peacock's butcher shop. Claire Peacock wanted to downsize while they built up their bank balance again, and Sally suggested the two families swap houses. After persuading their husbands to agree to the scheme, the wives planned it all and put it into motion very quickly. The estate agent valued No.13 at £98,000, more than was expected. In June 2008, the Websters moved out and the Peacocks - Ashley, Claire, and children Joshua and Freddie prepared to move in, but cancelled the move when the fuse box exploded, making the house uninhabitable while the electrics were rewired.

2008-
While the Peacocks couldn't live in the house right away, Claire discovered a treasure trove in the attic, first finding first what she believed to be an original Lowry painting (but what was actually painted by Irma Ogden) and then some concert programmes, including one from a performance by The Beatles from 1963, which earned the Peacocks a tidy sum of £7,000. However, in December 2010, a tram came off of the viaduct and smashed into the corner shop and number 13, leaving the Peacocks homeless.

With the peacocks now living outside of Weatherfield. the future of number 13 remains unknown

Modifications and improvements

 * The third upstairs bedroom was converted into a bathroom at one point prior to 1960.
 * Some time in the 1960s, probably in 1964, the electrics at No.13 were rewired.
 * In 1967, Hilda Ogden hired a decorator to decorate the front parlour but sacked him when his colour blindness led to him doing a terrible job.
 * In 1971, Stan built a serving hatch between the living room and front parlour, to prove to Len Fairclough and Ray Langton that he was capable of taking on a job himself, even though they rarely ate anything in the front room. Stan pointed that the kitchen/living room wall was a bearing wall so he couldn't knock a hole in it. The serving hatch was later outfitted with doors.
 * In 1973, while Hilda was away visiting her brother Archie Crabtree, Stan Ogden didn't take care of the house and his neighbour Elsie Tanner phoned the health inspectors. The house had to be fumigated as mice and cockroaches were found.
 * In 1976, Hilda wanted to decorate the main room and Eddie Yeats promised to get wallpaper for on the cheap. She turned down his first few offers but admired his last alternative - a picture of the Canadian Rockies which when put up made a mural, or "muriel" as Hilda called it, which covered the entire wall. Hilda thought it would give the house a touch of class, even though everybody else thought it was tasteless.
 * In 1978, the house was flooded when Stan left the bath taps on. Hilda found the mural was ruined, but refused to replace it with wallpaper, and chose another mural, this time of a seascape with flying ducks. This remained on the wall until early 1988.
 * In 1978, a slate went missing from No.13's roof, allowing a nest of pigeons to form in the loft of the neighbouring No.11, home of Elsie Tanner. Hilda felt no desire to fix the problem as the pigeons weren't bothering her, but was fuming when Elsie's lodger Suzie Birchall accidentally broke through No.13's bedroom ceiling while trying to block the gap in the roof left by the missing slate. The situation was resolved when Elsie took Hilda to court and the Arbiter decided they should each pay for their own repairs.
 * When Hilda moved out in 1987, Kevin and Sally Webster bought the house and Martin Platt helped them decorate it.
 * Bill Webster started a fire which destroyed the kitchen in 1995. He installed a new kitchen himself.
 * Decorater Alex Jordan was hired to decorate the living room and front parlour in 2002. While wallpapering the living room, he uncovered Hilda's mural, which had been papered over the last time the room was decorated. The mural was finally stripped from the wall before the new wallpaper was put up.
 * The electrics were rewired again in 2008 when a fuse box blew, leaving the house without electricity. Bill Webster carried out the repairs.

Unlucky thirteen

 * "'as a long, unhappy history, 'as that 'ouse. You've only to look back three or four years to see it for yourself. It was Christine Hardman's mother May, she died on the stairs and nobody heard her calling. Then there was Christine 'erself, threatened to throw 'erself off the roof of the raincoat factory. There was insanity in that family and I always said so." - Ena Sharples

While most of the other houses in Coronation Street have seen families fall on hard times, No.13 has been noted by some Street residents for bringing even more bad luck, with some attributing the ills of its residents to the fact that the house number is thirteen.

Catastrophes involving the house have included the sudden deaths of its first residents, Enid and Lizzie Harrison, only four months after moving in. The Harrisons themselves were seen as oddities by their neighbours as they kept to themselves and spoke to each other in French when they visited the Corner Shop. The deaths of Vic and Bob Piggott on the Somme followed, and the death of Emma Piggott, and later the disappearance of Tom Lingard, which resulted in his family's eviction. The Hardmans were especially unlucky as May's sister Madge was killed when a shard of glass sliced through her body when she was seeking shelter in the backyard coal hole when the house opposite was hit by a bomb. Having moved away from the house, the Hardmans returned in reduced circumstances after George's death, and May's death followed from a brain tumour in 1960. On occasion, bad luck happened even outside the house, such as in 1961 when a slate fell off the house's roof and hit Minnie Caldwell on the head. Fortunately she was not seriously hurt.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Ogdens had such bad luck that Hilda told Stan to change the house number to 12a, blaming their circumstances on the number thirteen. However, when they went outside to see the new numbers, they were locked out, proving that the luck was down to them and not the house, so it was changed back to 13.

During the tram crash of December 2010, the house caught fire after an electrical explosion caused by broken Christmas lights. The Peacocks later fleed from the street following Claire's assault on Tracy Barlow, leaving the house ruined and empty.

Owners

 * Jerry Booth (1963-1964)
 * Stan Ogden (1964-1970, 1971-1984)
 * Dave Smith (1970-1971)
 * Hilda Ogden (1984-1987)
 * Kevin Webster (1987-2008)
 * Ashley Peacock (2008-2010)
 * Claire Peacock (2010)

Residents

 * Enid Harrison (1902)
 * Lizzie Harrison (1902)
 * Fred Piggott (1902-1919)
 * Emma Piggott (1902-1918)
 * Vic Piggott (1902-1916)
 * Bob Piggott (1902-1916)
 * Tom Lingard (1919-1929)
 * Nellie Lingard (1919-1929)
 * Ada Lingard (1919-1929)
 * Mary Lingard (1921-1929)
 * George Hardman (1930-1953)
 * May Hardman (1930-1939, 1945-1953, 1955-1960)
 * Christine Hardman (1939, 1945-1953, 1955-1962)
 * Madge Mason (1940)
 * Kezia North (1954)
 * Jerry Booth (1963-1964)
 * Myra Booth (1963-1964)
 * Stan Ogden (1964-1987)
 * Hilda Ogden (1964-1987)
 * Irma Ogden (1964-1966, 1970)
 * Trevor Ogden (1964)
 * Jim Mount (1966)
 * Tommy Deakin (1974)
 * Michael Ryan (1974)
 * Eddie Yeats (1976, 1980-1983)
 * Terry Duckworth (1984)
 * Henry Wakefield (1985)
 * Kevin Webster (1985-1987, 1988-1997, 1997-1999, 2002-2008)
 * Sally Webster (1986-1987, 1988-1998, 1999-2008)
 * Gina Seddon (1988-1989)
 * Rosie Webster (1990-2008)
 * Sophie Webster (1994-2008)
 * Bill Webster (1995, 2006, 2007)
 * Danny Hargreaves (2000-2001)
 * Ashley Peacock (2008-2010)
 * Claire Peacock (2008-2010)
 * Joshua Peacock (2008-2010)
 * Freddie Peacock (2008-2010)
 * Graeme Proctor (2009)

Background information

 * In 1985 spin-off VHS The Jubilee Years, Angela Hughes visits Coronation Street and reminisces with several residents about living at No.13 with her family, the Taylors, until it was sold to the Hardmans in 1960. This directly contradicts history established within Coronation Street itself, as the Taylors were a new invention for the video.
 * Several early episodes incorrectly show the staircase in the hall to be to the left of the front door (in Episode 1069, for example).
 * While Christine and May Hardman lived in the house, most scenes took place in the front parlour, as unlike later residents they apparently used it as a living room. Early episodes show the room to be much larger than it would later be.
 * As with the other houses in the Street, the ownership of the house when not owned by a resident is unclear. Wormold was usually referenced as the landlord of most of the residents, and he appears in Episode 371 to sell to No.13 to the Ogdens, but in Episode 424 (4th January 1965) an Edward Wormold, said to be the brother of the previous Wormold, tells Ena Sharples that Mrs. Briggs, the owner of the Street, has died and left her a house in her will, implying that Wormold is merely a rent collector.