First look at Coronation Street’s new Salford home

HERE’S the first look at Coronation Street’s new home in Salford – being painstakingly built to match the old set and stand up to HD TV.

Our aerial pictures show the shell of the Rovers Return, Dev’s corner shop, Norris Cole and Rita Sullivan’s Kabin and the still scaffolded Underworld knicker factory.

And you can see work has started on Barlow’s Bookies and Dr Carter’s Medical Centre, too.

The Manchester-based soap’s top team of set designers have used 19 different types of brick, seven different types of mortar and have a mountain of cobbles on order. They will even fit Tyrone Dobbs’ yellow and blue stone cladding.

And while every care is being taken to keep the Street’s unique identity, there is one very big difference — size.

The new larger set is 7.7acres. And the street will now be wide enough for two cars to drive down side-by-side.

Construction on the new set, based at MediaCityUK, is expected to continue until the end of this year.

Current set ... Coronation Street is filmed at Quay Street

Bosses will soon agree a date next year to move filming from its current Quay Street location to the new set.

Executive producer Kieran Roberts said: “These are exciting times.

“We’ve been waiting for the moment we could reveal the Street in a form that our viewers would instantly recognise.

“These brilliant photographs clearly show what a detailed and impressive recreation of our current set this is.

“When we started to look at moving Coronation Street, I don’t think any of us quite realised what a massive undertaking such a project would be.

“I hope everybody enjoys a glimpse of the new site which will be the new home of the nation’s favourite street for decades.”