Chimney Pot Park

Four years ago, for reasons I won't bore you with, we were lucky enough to be taken on a tour of various sites in Manchester used as "locations" for Coronation Street filming. Today we thought we'd drive around a couple of these, partly to see how they'd changed in four years but mainly because they provide some interesting photo opportunities for those, like our esteemed visitor, who appreciate such things. Especially chimney pots.

Our first stop, therefore, was the appropriately named Chimney Pot Park. It's the place used to represent the mysterious "Red Rec" - often referred to but only ever filmed on those rare occasions when something significant is happening there, such as Emily's tree-top protest of a few years ago. Back in 2005, it looked like this. Rather sad really, to see all those traditional back-to-back terraced houses, which had provided homes for countless hundreds of Salford residents over the years, all borded up with aluminium sheeting and ready for demolition.

But the story has a happy ending, because the whole area, rather than being slated for demolition, was actually awaiting the start of an urban redevelopment project which took its name from the traditional local name of the area: Chimney Pot Park. It's the brainchild of Urban Splash, who are responsible for a number of innovative housing projects in the city. They're occasionally the subject of some bad press, but hey, if they can provide affordable, modern housing in previously run-down areas AND make money at the same time, what's wrong with that?

The project was still in progress when we were there, with work going on at front and back:

The fronts have been developed to retain their original terraced look, with the indented parking spaces retained on the roads, but the backs - with their familiar (to Coronation Street viewers at least) back yards and ginnels - have been replaced with a first-floor deck that provides a communal living space for all the houses in a row, along with "underground" gated parking, which is actually at street level but underneath the deck. The houses have effectively been turned upside down, so the living spaces - living room, dining and kitchen - are on the first floor, with the bedrooms on the ground floor.

The completed houses further down the block look like this:

...which, if I was buying my first house and looking to establish a community, would be a very attractive proposition. Good luck to the developers, and all the people in their new homes.

Then it was off to Portland Basin - scene of the famous "driving into the canal" business with crazy Richard Hillman (and later when David Platt repeated the stunt). This hasn't changed as much over the years, except that the small (but perfectly formed) museum there is undergoing some refurbishment to its Industrial Gallery, so a substantial part of it was roped off for our visit.

The sun graced us with its presence while we walked around the canal basin, over the bridge and around the boatyard. On our way back across the bridge a long boat chugged through the basin making its leisurely way to the next lock. It looked idyllic and it's easy to be fooled into thinking a barge holiday would be the perfect way to spend a week, but I remember the second time I took a boating holiday, when it pissed with rain for the entire fortnight and none of us could get dry, ever. Yes, it's lovely when the sun's out. When it's not, being on a boat is the most miserable experience imaginable.