Life on the original Coronation Street - from tourists to celebrity neighbours

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Growing up in Salford, David Taylor can still hear the milkman rattle across his old cobbled street.

Mill workers came home with fluff stuck to their coats. Women swept their front steps. Children raced each other in carts made from old pram frames.

Though life on the street was wholesome, it was mostly unremarkable.

That was until a few years later when it was unexpectedly launched into stardom.

In the autumn of 1960, Archie Street inspired what would later become the longest-running soap opera in the world.

It was stumbled upon by show creators Tony Warren and Denis Parkin who were out scouring Ordsall for film set ideas.

It was there that Coronation Street was born.

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But David, who moved to the street as a child in 1954, remembers life on the original cobbles before its rise to fame.

“You live in different areas but it’s one of those streets you never forget,” the 68-year-old told the Manchester Evening News.

“It was the street of dreams.

“What you see on TV, I know they had a show to do, but there really were some great times that used to go on.

“We had troubles and problems because it was hard – you name it.”

While we’re all familiar with the famous Rovers Return, Underworld and Roy’s Rolls, there are some notable differences between the fictional Coronation Street and its real inspiration.

There were terraced homes on both side of Archie Street with no factory or pub.

There was a real corner shop – called Daniel Clifton & Co. Ltd – but it did not have a railway viaduct.

“It’s true, we did have a shop on the corner,” David, who lived at house number eight, continued.

“We had bay window houses