Corner Shop

The Corner Shop was the first building to be seen in the first episode of Coronation Street. 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 herself became a young widow herself when Tommy died suddenly during the end-of-World War 2 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. Shortly after that, ex-army seargent Lionel Petty bought the corner shop after his daughter Sandra persuaded him to (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, Lionel decided to give up the shop and sold 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 were killed in a car crash. Irma took the job of shop assistant. On 8th July 1974, Maggie married Ron Cooke. The couple decided to emigrate to Zaire and the shop was sold to the Hopkins family.

In 1976 Renee Bradshaw bought the shop and applies to be an off-licence. Annie Walker opposed the idea but unfortunately for Annie, Renee won the application. In 1978, Renee married Alf Roberts and the following year Alf decided to give up his job at the council offices to spend more time helping Renee in the shop. Renee died in a road accident in 1980, and Alf continued to run the shop 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 upstairs bedsit was renovated into a more comfortable flat. Alf opened the new shop in October 1985, and in December of that year he married Audrey Potter, who joined him in working in the shop along with Sally Webster.

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 was going to call 'Bestbuys' and saw the Coronation Street shop as the first rung in his empire. However 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 and sold it on to Reg Holdsworth for £68,000, who 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. In 1998, Maureen married Fred Elliott but left him within days, and he took over running the shop with his nephew (later to be revealed as his son) Ashley Peacock.

In late 1999, Fred sold the shop to Ravi Desai, installing his daughter Nita and his sister-in-law Maya as staff. In 2000, Ravi sold the Corner Shop and six others to his nephew Dev Alahan. Late in 2004, Dev's empire of Corner Shops and Mini-Markets went up in smoke after 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 was gutted. 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 late 2010, the shop was destroyed when it was hit by a derailed tram. Sunita, Molly and her baby Jack were trapped in the rubble. 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.