Bulldozers are ripping through the Rovers Return, Jack and Vera’s cladded house and Rita’s Kabin shop as iconic landmarks of the old Coronation Street set are razed.
The TV soap’s former set in Manchester city centre had film crews there for the final time in 2013 and is being knocked down to make way for redevelopment.
And the demolition work is now moving ahead at pace, with heavy plant machinery on the site where scenes were shot for 30 years.
Pictures taken by an urban explorer, known only as Ben, are perhaps among the very last to be snapped before the former Coronation Street set in Manchester is demolished forever
The TV soap’s former set in Manchester city centre had film crews there for the final time in 2013 and is being knocked down to make way for redevelopment
Pictures taken by an urban explorer, known only as Ben, are perhaps among the very last to be snapped before the famous sites are gone forever.
He got into the derelict set on Thursday and shared his photographs with the M.E.N.
Ben, from Manchester, said: ‘With the bulldozers going in I thought I’d give it a final visit. I’ve previously been on the official tour and I’ve had a couple of little urban explores.
And the demolition work is now moving ahead at pace, with heavy plant machinery on the site where scenes were shot for 30 years
Pictures taken by an urban explorer, known only as Ben, are perhaps among the very last to be snapped before the famous sites are gone forever
He got into the derelict set on Thursday and shared his photographs with the M.E.N. Ben, from Manchester, said: ‘With the bulldozers going in I thought I’d give it a final visit
‘I’m a big fan of Corrie so it’s not nice to see Audrey’s salon demolished and Gail’s house being bulldozed but it is just bricks and mortar.
‘They have also started on the Kabin and have completely stripped everywhere. The site already looked apocalyptic but it does even more now there are bulldozers there.’
The set is currently being demolished ahead of flats, offices and restaurants being built.
The set is currently being demolished ahead of flats, offices and restaurants being built
It had been a tourist attraction after closing but recently there are signs of squatters with rubbish – as well as building rubble – strewn inside many of the buildings
There is graffiti in the Rovers Return toilet, cobbles overgrown with grass and snobby Sally Metcalfe would blush to see the size of weeds in her former garden
It had been a tourist attraction after closing but recently there are signs of squatters with rubbish – as well as building rubble – strewn inside many of the buildings.
There is graffiti in the Rovers Return toilet, cobbles overgrown with grass and snobby Sally Metcalfe would blush to see the size of weeds in her former garden.
Ben is not the first urban explorer to be attracted to the former set, at Quay Street, since filming moved to Trafford Wharf.
Ben is not the first urban explorer to be attracted to the former set, at Quay Street, since filming moved to Trafford Wharf
Ben said: ‘Urban exploring is something I enjoy; everyone has their own hobby. People sometimes think it is a bit weird and dodgy but it is fun and exciting exploring nooks and crannies’
Karim Miah, 32, travelled from Hertfordshire to do a similar thing in February prior to bulldozers arriving.
Ben said: ‘Urban exploring is something I enjoy; everyone has their own hobby. People sometimes think it is a bit weird and dodgy but it is fun and exciting exploring nooks and crannies.’