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Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland, situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. Located over 200 miles north of Weatherfield, many residents of Coronation Street have nevertheless made Glasgow their home over the years, particularly those in the Tatlock and Barlow families.

A port city founded in the sixth century, Glasgow grew during the Industrial Revolution into a centre of shipbuilding, textiles and engineering. In 1963, Amalgamated Steel had one of its factories there. As a company chauffeur, Harry Hewitt was away from home for several nights at a time in order to drive the company's directors to the Glasgow plant. Early the next year, Dennis Tanner was nearly fired from his job in the loading bay at the Weatherfield plant for putting Leeds's order onto a Glasgow lorry.

Glasgow is also the home of some major football teams including Rangers FC. In 1975, Peter Barlow was a supporter of the club, while born-and-bred Scot Tony Gordon ridiculed the team in 2008.

Ties to Weatherfield[]

Tatlock/Barlow family[]

Susan barlow house exterior

2001: Having just found out about his 12-year-old son Adam's existence, Mike Baldwin lies in wait outside his ex-wife Susan Barlow's flat

The Tatlocks first moved to Glasgow in 1961 when Alfred Tatlock accepted the job of station master there. He and his wife Edith had a daughter, Valerie, who lived with them for several months, helping out at their shop, until she returned to Weatherfield to marry Ken Barlow.

After Val's sudden death by electrocution from a faulty hairdryer in 1971, Ken spent some time in Glasgow, staying with Val's parents. The Tatlocks briefly made plans to sell their shop and move back to Weatherfield in order to care for Peter and Susan, but Ken offended Edith by hiring a nanny, Margaret Lacey, instead. Later in the year, Ken sent the twins to live with the Tatlocks in Glasgow for the foreseeable future, as balancing them with work was proving too much for him.

Moving there when they were six, Peter and Susan grew up in Glasgow. Ken planned to send for them when he had found a new mother for them, which lead him to marry Janet Reid in 1973. However, it had taken him so long that the twins, now settled in Glasgow, chose to remain there and be raised by Val's parents rather than move back to Weatherfield. Albert Tatlock found their absence from Weatherfield especially hard-going, as he couldn't easily afford the train fare and Ken would frequently spend Christmas in Glasgow, leaving him with nobody but Ena Sharples and Minnie Caldwell for company. On his 80th birthday, the street residents banded together to get his rail fare together, allowing him to make a rare visit to see his brother.

The twins visited Weatherfield occasionally, especially as they got older. In 1975, Peter saved his Christmas money to buy a train ticket and made the journey alone, without telling anyone. Peter told Ken that he was being bullied in Glasgow and wanted to stay, but eventually he became homesick and went back. In 1978, Ken pulled Peter out of school in Glasgow to resit his exams in Weatherfield after he failed them. Peter found the drive to succeed when he decided to join the Navy, and returned to finish his schooling in Glasgow before signing up in 1980. Susan didn't travel down as much, but made an appearance over New Year 1979. In 1981, she moved to Chiswick for a holiday job in a wine bar.

By 2001, Val's parents had passed away and Susan, now an accountant, was back living in their old flat with her son, Adam. Adam was the product of Susan and Mike Baldwin's marriage, born in 1988. Peter was the only member of the family who knew that Adam existed, as Susan was desperate to keep him away from Mike. When Mike drove up to Glasgow and started harassing her, Susan was again driven to run away from him. She planned to flee to Ireland, but was killed in a car crash outside Preston. Following her death, Ken planned to raise Adam and uproot the family to Glasgow, however custody was ultimately awarded to Mike instead. At his own choosing, Adam was allowed to return to his school in Glasgow as a boarder. After completing his education there in 2005, he joined the rest of his family in Weatherfield, cutting the Barlows' ties to the Scottish city after 44 years.

Other connections[]

Esther Hayes, a senior clerk at Hunter and Bowen mail order firm, transferred to the company's Glasgow office in 1964. By 1971, she had returned to England and was living in Nottingham.

Naval Officer Bill Gregory and his wife Phyllis also had their home in Glasgow in the 1960s. In 1962, Bill moved back there when he reconciled with his wife, breaking Elsie Tanner's heart. Bill was still living there when he paid a visit to Coronation Street in 1970, shortly before he emigrated to Portugal to run a wine bar.

In 2009, Kevin Webster and Molly Dobbs used a 10k run in Glasgow as a cover story for their dirty weekend in Chester when cheating on their spouses Sally and Tyrone. They were almost caught out when Sophie Webster pointed out that the race they'd supposedly entered was the "GlasGay Ten K", and later when Kevin's pictures weren't uploaded to the website. Kevin covered by saying that he'd dropped out of the race after two miles.

That same year, Michelle Connor turned down builder Jake Harman's offer to join him in Glasgow when he got a contract there. In 2010, Ciaran McCarthy travelled up for an interview as a restaurant chef, but turned it down to be with Michelle. Ciaran was also instrumental in convincing Michelle's son Ryan to accept a place at university there when Ryan was prepared to refuse it for Michelle's sake. Ciaran took Ryan up to Glasgow and showed him around, being familiar with the city. Ryan had a terrible time after moving there, as he was kicked out of university in 2012 after a prank involving fire entinguishers and became hooked on cocaine before returning to Weatherfield.

Also in 2012, Tyrone Dobbs planned to sneak away to Glasgow with his daughter Ruby in order to escape an abusive relationship with Ruby's mother Kirsty Soames. His friends Fiz Stape and Tommy Duckworth stopped the coach and persuaded Tyrone that this wasn't the way to beat Kirsty as it would only get him in trouble.

Background information[]

Coronation Street has never filmed in Glasgow but a number of episodes have had scenes set there. A Glasgow park is seen in Episode 1376 (25th March 1974), while the area outside Susan Barlow's flat features prominently in episodes 4975, 4976 and 4983 in 2001. When Adam Barlow's boarding school Borthwick Hill appeared later that year, the exterior scenes were recorded on location at the GMB College on College Road in Whalley Range, Manchester.

Actors born in the Scottish city include Mitzi Rogers (Jenny Tanner), Sean Scanlan (Les Pringle), Colette O'Neil (Ruth Winter), Benny Young (Brian Dunkley), and Tony Osoba (Peter Ingram), along with director Walter Butler.

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