PLANS are being discussed to move Coronation Street cobble-by-cobble to a site at Salford Quays.
Land across the water from the BBC at MediaCity has been reserved for ITV's new northern headquarters.
If the proposals get the go ahead, Granada's current base in Manchester would be sold and staff moved to the site next to the Imperial War Museum North.
That may include Coronation Street, described by ITV as the most valuable programme on British television.
It would involve the building of a near-identical exterior set plus interior studio sets.
Other options being examined include moving the nation's most famous street to its own dedicated site at another location.
Corrie celebrates its 50th anniversary in December next year.
The current exterior set dates back to 1982. Although part of Salford Quays, the proposed new site is on land at Trafford Wharf, just inside the border of Manchester.
Talks have included a possible link across the Manchester Ship Canal to the main MediaCity site, plus the option of Granada moving in with the BBC.
If a move goes ahead, there is expected to be shared-use of studio resources involving BBC North's new HQ.
Five BBC departments, including Sport, Children's and Radio Five Live, are due to move to MediaCity by 2012, along with more than 1,600 jobs.
In addition, about 800 existing BBC staff in Manchester will move to Salford when their current home in Oxford Road closes.
A final decision has yet to be taken by ITV, but there is speculation that the outcome of negotiations could be known by July.
ITV chief operating officer John Cresswell told the M.E.N: "We're in deep discussion with MediaCity and it's something that maybe we'll be able to announce.
The key thing in this is protecting Coronation Street, which is the most valuable programme on British television. So we're not going to rush into a decision."
Production of the Channel 4 quiz Countdown is moving to Manchester - and possibly on to Salford Quays - after the closure of ITV's main TV studio in Leeds was announced yesterday.
Salford Quays is now set to become the focus of ITV's business in the north.
Developers were asked to create a masterplan for the 24 acres of land owned by ITV on its Quay Street site in Manchester.
The economic downturn has reduced both the value of the land and development options. But a sale would give ITV much-needed cash.
A decision to stay has not been ruled out but that would create problems for the filming of Coronation Street while development work was going on nearby.
Originally the entire set was inside a studio. The first outside set was seen on screen in 1968 before the latest version arrived 14 years later.
Almost 49,000 bricks and 6,500 roofing slates were reclaimed from Salford streets to give the TV soap the right look.
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I heard that there are plans on the current Granda site to build a two hotels and, yes you've guessed it, more apartments.
We have hotels going out of business, 35% of all city centre apartments are empty and 70% in negative equity and yet they want to build more! This was drag the price of apartments down even further which means if you own one there then you are stuffed for at least fifteen years.
This land should be used as green space as Manchester city centre has less green space than any European city. Why not have a proper par there? Because it wouldn't make money that's why.
Any development should not be any higher than the current building and ashould reflect the low level buildings on Liverpool Road, however plans for 16 storey high apartment blocks are not uncommon.
For an updated photographic timeline (both in detail and abridged) of the Peel MediaCityUK development in Salford Quays, goto :
http://www.mawhitfield.co.uk/mcuk.htm
This link is updated every week or so and will always redirect to the current month's pictures. I work as an IT Manager in a nearby Software House and keep abreast of all things on the site as they happen. The link shows photos back to May 2007.
I have never heard before that we have less green space than any other European city, where did you get this fact from Bob?
Interested
I thought ITV were having to save money?
WOW.. THAT LOAD OF FANTASY ISLAND SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE AWAY WITH. YEARS AGO..IT MADE US MANCHESTER FOLKS THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE UNIVERSE !!!!
PEOPLE BELIEVED THAT WE COULD BE IDIOTS LIKE THAT...EEE BY GUM..AND THE
ACTING WAS BLOODY TERRIBLE...DONE BY THIRD RATE PERFORMERS WHO GOT LUCKY..
SCRAP IT....ART DAWKINS SUNNY THAILAND....thank goodness i am here...
And how much is it going to cost to relocate Coronation Street brick by brick? Maybe they could employ some of the hundreds of people they've just made redundant to do it - I'm sure they'd appreciate both the work and where their former salaries are going!
selling quay st is only a quick fix for the finiancial problems itv has! they will only be renting the site at salford quays which will probably cost more money that the original studios!
Terry...I have heard that statistic about open space too. It's not difficult to disbelieve though is it? Compare us to London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris etc...what do we have in Manchester? Sackville Gardens, a reduced Piccadilly Gardens, a postage stamp of grass at Urbis and the little park near Granada. It's a bit poor.
So ITV claim that Corrie is the most valuable programme on British television, really?
Surely not for its merit as quality tv. They must mean for how much it rakes in from ads.
I wonder about that because I bet Harveys Furniture are not paying anything like Cadbury
did for sponsorship. That being the case surely all revenue from advertising during Corrie
will have fallen.
Coronation street has been moved before on more than one occasion. But this could be a move too far. The BBC should not have moved to dockland. They should have bought the land next to Granada on the banks of the Irwell that used to be used for parking for the Studios Tour. And if there is any land spare, a small film studios for the number of film and TV series made in the area would have been better than having to go back to Elstree or Shepperton. Remember, we used to have a film studios in Manchester - it was where George Formby made his first film.
But Offcom and the government are too weak on Tv regulation and it only changed because their masters at Sky/News International ordered it and they were scared enough to allow the American owned company to dictate.
I thought Media City was going to be fantastic - until I saw that horrendous blue/grey cladding they've just started to put up. Looks like a high rise prison now!!
The luvvies are going to hate working there. So tacky & ugly. Seems Peel just "don't do" good architecture!!
I thought Rupert Murdoch was Australian?
Regarding the city cenntre it is right that it has less green spaces than anywhere in Europe. A bit of lawn at Piccadilly isn't regarded as green space either. There is onlt the tiny Sackville Park and small John Streets Park and that is it.
The rest is concrete. Green sapces are important in urban areas nit just because they are relaxing and aesthetically pleasing but they help reduce the impact of carbon emissions.
Manchester council has accepted planning permission from developers and are green spaces are gone. I have seen many planning appications for apartment blocks that will include gardens but they turn out to be concrete, four benches and a strip of lawn about half the size of a swimming pool.
Even the most congested cities have proper sapce - Hyde Park, Regent Park, even small public gardens like the one in Grosvenor Square, New York has Central Park etc.
This land should be given to the people rather than building more apartments that will remain empty.
Peel bought the Ship Canal precisely to profit fromdevloping the land either side of it, and this fits right in. No doubt Peel will offer a tempting deal to ITV to bolster their existing developments at Media City. ITV can then likely turn a profit with the sale of their Quay Street / Water Street holdings.
As for people questioning why Corrie is classed as the most valuable show on TV...do the sums:
Still the highest rated programme on TV, (upto 11.5million viewers)
5 times a week, 52 weeks a year
with a total of 8 minutes of advert slots before, during and after each episode.
With most adverts running at 30secs, thats over 4000 of the highest cost advertising slots around and, at a rough guess, nearly 3 BILLION viewings a year, excluding repeats.
TV cash cows simply don't come any bigger.
And anyroad, Jack Duckworth would be made up with a move to the Quays - its walking distance to his bowling green at the Red Rec (Chimneypot Park in Langworthy). Do it for Jack!
(PS: Strictly speaking, Trafford Wharf isn't in Manchester -its in Trafford, but never mind.)
Two Points - Rupert Murdoch was born Australian but gained dual nationality and his other nationality is American. Of course, gaining US Nationality allowed him to own Terrestrial stations that no UK citizen would be allowed to own as their rules prevent non-US nationals from owning them. Those rules don't apply in Europe so he can own TV stations here too.
The other point is about the Red Rec'. Several Locations have been used for the Red Rec'. Roy and Hayley had their first kiss on a bench next to Heaton Park Boating Lake which was supposed to be the Red Rec'. Les Battersby was stuck on an Island in "crocodile infested waters", in the middle of Heaton Paark Boating Lake which was also called the Red Rec'. Heaton Park was also used as the burial place of Ray Langton (The Belltower).
Even if the Victorians had bequeathed Manchester a huge city centre park, Messrs Leese & Bernstein would have sold it off. (Or at least a huge chunk of it!!)
Welcome to our green-less, concrete jungle!!