Touring the Street

Yesterday was my turn to visit Granada Studios and experience the tour of Coronation Street. Most of our other reviewers saw the cobbles for the first time. I've been very fortunate. This has been my fifth time on the outdoor set with a third visit in the studio itself. This was a different sort of visit, however, as it was an organized tour rather than a quiet private tour.

Because I'm a bit spoiled, I found the organized tour a little rushed. I wish I had more time to stop and look at the various displays they had in the studio of things like iconic character trademarks and costumes and props and photos. The tours are timed entry and the usher a group of about 30 through every 10 minutes. If they did them at 20 minute intervals, that would be enough time to have a better look but that's a minor complaint, really. The tour gives you a great overview of the production of the show and it's really interesting to see the dressed sets because of how small they really are.

You get to see the Platt house, the Dobbs house, Carla's original flat and Underworld. What Coronation Street tour would be complete without a visit to the Rovers Return! We got to sit in one of the famed booths while we waited to have our official photo taken behind the bar. Yep, you can purchase that at the gift shop for 7.50GB in a nice souvenir folder. Otherwise there are no photos allowed inside the studio. I think mainly that's because it would slow things down. You also see the production technical area en route to the entrance to the cobbles themselves through the Bistro door. Then you can take as much time as you like taking photos on the outside set.

We got lucky with the weather. After a few days of rain, the sun came out when we were on the set. We wandered around for awhile and then went to the little cafe by the tour entrance while we waited for Michael and Gemma from Conversation Street to go through the tour after us. It was great to meet them and I look forward to their podcast this coming weekend to hear more of their adventures in Corrie-land.

You can read more comments and see a few more photos over here.

More of my photos are here on Flickr.


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