My mum and I came up with an idea to transform the show over our dinner.

Since the factory has been responsible for so many dull storylines over the years, we think it's about time that they close it. We have this idea for a care home to replace it. Think of all the interesting new characters and storylines this would produce. We could see the return of established favourites from years back returning to live on the Street to be closer to their old friends. I think it would really revitalise the show. What do people think? Does anyone enjoy the factory storylines?

The factory should have gone years ago

No way it's been there for years.

no. why get rid of it? its one of the focal points of the soap, a huge employer in the area amd good for getting different elements of cast to mix together that you wouldn't otherwise get

instead of getting rid of it maybe they could reinvent it. Have it turn into a different type of factory maybe car parts of some other type of machinery and have the men work there instead of the women, it'd be completely different but still keep up the tradition of having a factory on the street.

Yes, should go.

In real life it wouldn't be there in this day and age.

Back street with a few houses....
Within a few meters they have a pub, kebab shop, bus stop, cafe, doctors, florists, hairdressers, community centre, underwear factory, builders yard, vehicle repair garage, corner grocers, newspaper shop, bistro.
And the only people they ever speak to every day are their neighbours (!).
Quite unbelievable.

Of course there needs to be places to get characters interacting with each other, but can't they spread their wings a bit. Everything happens in one place.
At least in Neighbours they have the hotel complex and outside spaces, and not using the street location for everything.

No! I remember when it was the Raincoat Factory. Wouldn't be the same without it.

Should be modernised into another type of workplace. Going by factories in my area it would probably be a tech/digital start-up office block in real life. Don't think that would be ideal but it could be turned into a call centre or something.

Its about 20 years out of date, in 2016 a place like that would not be operation still, costs would be far too high for making underwear. Even the most expensive department store underwear is made a hell of a lot cheaper than that place would make it.

Food processing factory might work, or an industrial bakery or something but an underwear factory is ridiculous.

Why didn't they shut the place down after the Baldwins had left?

There is no logic in having a loss-making factory at the centre of a soap, when in 21st century Britain many textile plants are moved over to the Far East and such. The only reason it exists is to have characters mingle and gossip.

I personally would like to see the place in perils, before the Connors accept a consortium offer to regenerate Weatherfield. Maybe some characters fearing about their futures and actually heading off to the job centre? A hotel could work.......maybe even a night club.

No because nearly everyone on the street will be out of work and they would have to get a job outside of Weatherfield

It only opened in 1997...

Apartments.
I worked in an area very similar to Coronation St and there was a factory (bigger than Underworld) across the road. I just looked it up on Google maps and it looks like its all apartments now.

They have enough places for people to live. It would have to be another workplace.

As others have said, the factory should have died with the Baldwins.

To me, the factory highlights Corrie's complete inability to reflect the realities of Britain in 2016. As each episode passes with the factory girls sitting around unpicking their terrible stitching (watch it next time, that's ALL they do), going on a cake run and another 'make or break' deal being sealed to keep the factory afloat for another few weeks, Underworld seems more and more out of date. It's also the thriving textile across the North West that they've built around Underworld that grates on me. Tonight's episode, for instance, had Jenny suggesting to Johnny that he might have contacts at other local factories so that she could get a job ... like Underworld is just one cog in a booming manufacturing industry that's going from strength to strength.

It's ironic that when the set was redeveloped in 1989 the show made a real attempt to reflect Britain in the late 80s, with declining manufacturing and increased consumerism. Baldwin's closed down and the focus of the show's 'sweatshop' shifted to the Bettabuy supermarket. Sadly, as the 90s progressed, the factory crept back in and slowly grew and grew. Having a textile manufacturer operating in the UK in the mid-90s was pushing believability even then, but with Mike Baldwin at the helm and the strong crop of factory girls (Ida Clough, Hayley, Linda Sykes, Janice and later Karen McDonald) the factory actually worked.

I'd be interested to know if the original unit that was built in 1989/1990 was ever intended to become another factory? When it was used as a t-shirt printing space by Steve McDonald it was tiny in comparison to the massive building it has become today. I can imagine that it was intended more as a small unit for a small-scale industrial/manufacturing operation, never a big factory.

Get a grip Corrie, please.

They could knock it down and in a few years it could be "Freshco Express" although I'd prefer for this to be away from the street.

I'd welcome this idea, definitely. A huge redevelopment of the 'posh' side of the street is something Corrie is crying out for, especially the section that includes the Kabin, garage and factory.

Having the factory close down and the building redeveloped as apartments would make that side of the street much more believable for me. Having the so-called 'posh' houses plonked next to a great big factory and a greasy garage has always jarred. Similarly, having the plush Victoria Court apartments shoved down the end of a scruffy side street has never quite fitted, especially since Weatherfield Quays was an established residential area.

The Victoria Court apartments can be deemed unsafe or something and have to close. A new developer buys up the factory and seeks permission to convert the building from commercial to residential. Norris is approached by a chain coffee shop with the idea of opening a small cafe within the Kabin (extending into the part that is currently Rita's garage). The Kabin then reinvents itself as a coffee shop and book/stationery shop (it used to sell coffee when it first opened in 1973) with the space outside pedestrianised and used for outside seating in the spring/summer. The garage building can be incorporated into the apartments, with the business operating out of its 'new' premises on Viaduct Street. The more I think about this, the more I think it's a great idea.

Having apartments within the main set is inevitable but this plan puts them at the heart of Coronation Street and puts them in a far more believable setting than shoved down a side street.

This is a great idea, as you say It would be much more fitting next to the newer houses than the outdated factory. KornerKabin, may I ask, have you signed the "DS Producers interviews" thread? If we got the chance to ask questions, this would be a great suggestion to put to Kate Oates & the corrie team.

Just because something has always been there it doesn't mean it is good. I think the factory has a lot to do with making Corrie so stale. It's the same old storylines and they have rarely been interesting. I definitely think they should get rid of it, either through an explosion, or be bought out by a different company.

If they have another kind of factory producing different goods, I fail to see how this will revitalise the show because what the characters make is irrelevant. It should be about the characters not the product.

If they replace the factory with say some warden-controlled retirement flats, it would produce some brilliant opportunities for all sorts of interesting characters and plotlines. There could be guest roles for older actors such as people like Ian McKellen. And it would spawn issue-led stories about the vulnerabilities of the elderly people in these flats.

Your idea sounds best suited to a new programme entirely. It wouldn't work in Corrie.

Why not?

Because it has nothing to do with the characters who are already there.

You'd be left with around a dozen characters with no jobs from Underworld closing as well. Where would they go?

Axe half of them as some of them are spent such as Sean Tully, and Izzy.

The point was to bring in lots of new faces because the show is tired and needs better characters.

Oh leave it alone.
It works perfectly well as a factory.

It's a bloody soap.. For Goodness Sake.