GOOD news (sort of) for fans of the Weatherfield cobbles, the Coronation Street tour on Atherton Street has confirmed its extension until 2016.
In the long term, Corrie's city centre legacy looks bleak. Major work on the Old Granada Studios site is set to begin at the start of 2016 - as soon as the tour ends.
A spokesperson for the tour operator, Continuum Leading Attractions, told Confidential that they could confirm that the tour would see out all of next year, with the last tour taking place in December 2015.
The attraction was only supposed to run for an original stint of six months from Spring 2014 - after production of the show moved to MediaCity in late-2013 - but has since welcomed over 300,000 fans to the tour.
The set has been used since 1982 (before then the complete set was housed inside the Granada studios) but was refused listed status by English Heritage in June 2012.
Old Granada Studios
The site will close for a short period in November to allow operator Continuum to transform Weatherfield into 'a winter wonderland', complete with snow covered roof tops and a Christmas tree for the cobbles.
2015 will also see some new additions, both in the studio exhibition with set elements brought over from Coronation Street’s new home in MediaCityUK and new areas opened up to the public for the first time.
“I am thrilled to announce we have been able to extend the opening of the attraction," said Juliana Delaney, Chief Executive of Continuum Leading Attractions. "The feedback we have received so far has been phenomenal and I’m so pleased those who have yet to experience the tour will now have the chance to.
"The extension paves the way for us to make some exciting changes to the attraction and give past and present visitors a chance to see something new.”
New plans for the Old Granada Plans
There had been some doubt about the immediate future of the tour at the former Coronation Street studio site since Spinningfields developers, Allied London, acquired the 13.5 acre Old Granada Studios plot in partnership with the City Council for £26.5m in the summer of 2013.
Corrie's city centre legacy looked doomed in August 2014 as Allied London laid out ambitious plans for a new city neighbourhood, 'St John's Quarter' - see here.
When asked at a public consultation about the former-Coronation Street site, Allied London chief Mike Ingall replied: "Well, do you see it on the plans?"
Even more doubts were cast last week as Allied London unveiled plans for a huge 200-suite hotel and entertainment complex, The Manchester Grande, for the former HQ building on Atherton Street, next door to the tour.
HQ building will become The Manchester Grande - the tour sits at the end of the street
In the long term, Corrie's city centre legacy looks bleak. Major work on the Old Granada Studios site is set to begin at the start of 2016 - as soon as the tour ends.
As Confidential has said many times before (we first made this case in February 2012), to lose an attraction rooted in British popular culture would be 'a case of the city cutting off its nose to spite its face', and could prove a huge knock to city centre tourism numbers.
As long as the tour is turning over a decent profit, employing locals and bringing in tourists (some as far as Canada and New Zealand) by the hundreds of thousands, we struggle to see the merit in flattening the whole thing - especially when estimates suggest the tour has pumped nearly £8m into the local economy in less than six months.
Granted, come 2016 and visitor numbers may dwindle, people may lose interest, but shouldn't new development plans at least seek to incorporate some of the street's distinctive buildings and features? If only to break up the monotony of glass office and residential blocks.
Tickets post 31 October will go on sale from midday on Monday 20 October and can be purchased from www.ticketmaster.co.uk/coronationstreet
