Coronation Street has unveiled plans for an expansion to its existing Weatherfield set. The ITV programme is the most-watched soap in the UK and this week made the move to hour-long episodes in a new 8pm time slot.
The show’s set, a 7.7 acre site in Trafford near Manchester, will be extended to make way for a two-storey exterior construction called the Weatherfield Precinct, which will feature maisonettes, a staircase and balcony leading to the properties, a piazza and an array of accessible local shops and units. Construction on the new development begins this week and is expected to take six months to complete.
Coronation Street’s production designer, Rosie Mullins-Hoyle, said: “We are extremely excited to be starting to build Weatherfield Precinct this week after a year of technical drawings, model making, visualising and planning. An incredible amount of research has been carried out focusing on 1960s local architecture and we are striving to create an authentic area of Weatherfield with a grittier vibe to the existing street that we know and love.”
