Brookside Close to go under hammer

17 December 2008 09:28am

Brookside's famous cul-de-sac - the backdrop for many of the explosive storylines in the axed soap - is being sold off.

Houses on Brookside Close are going under the hammer with a credit crunch price tag of as little as £550,000.

Channel 4's Liverpool-based drama played host to some of TV's most gripping, grisly and controversial moments such as a lesbian kiss involving Anna Friel, and the discovery of a body under a patio.

The street of 13 properties was bought by Mersey Television in 1982 as part of a scheme to cover the costs of the show and to provide a more realistic set than some of their rival soaps.

Six of the houses were on-screen as sets and the remaining seven were used to house the administration, post-production, canteen, make-up and technical facilities for cast and crew.

The show was axed five years ago after a run of more than two decades.

The guide price for the set, which is going under the hammer in London, is £550,000 to £600,000, auction house Allsop said. The 13 long leasehold houses were bought by developers in 2005 who refurbished all of them.

But they have remained vacant since and require some work, according to Allsop.

The properties will be sold collectively at auction and are described by the auction house as a "unique investment opportunity".

Speaking about the price, former Brookside star Ricky Tomlinson, who played Bobby Grant, previously told the Liverpool Echo: "It doesn't surprise me they're going for that... they were a place of work, after all."

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