1 Coronation Street 1 Coronation Street is the first house going east in Coronation Street and is located between the Rovers Return Inn and 3 Coronation Street . For most of the time since its construction in 1902 , No . 1 has been the domain of Albert Tatlock or Ken Barlow . Albert moved in along with his wife Bessie after World War I in 1919 and stayed there until his death in 1984 , aged 88 . Ken was the husband of Albert ' s late niece Valerie , and kept Albert company at No . 1 during Albert ' s old age . Albert came to look upon Ken as a son and sold the house to him in 1983 , by which time Ken ' s wife Deirdre and daughter Tracy were living there . With one brief exception , No . 1 has been the Barlow family home since Albert ' s death . For most of that time , it has been owned by Ken and inhabited by Ken and Deirdre , with the various members of their extended family coming and going , including Tracy , Peter , Susan , Amy and Adam Barlow , Blanche Hunt , Samir Rachid , and Denise and Daniel Osbourne . The only time it was not in the Barlow name was a period between 1994 and 1995 after Deirdre sold up to Mike Baldwin . During that time , Mike rented No . 1 to Tricia and Jamie Armstrong . Mike sold the house to Ken , who has owned it since then . The current residents are Ken , Tracy , Amy , Eccles , Adam , Daniel and Peter Barlow . History . Construction . 1 Coronation Street was built over a two - year period along with the rest of Coronation Street and Mawdsley Street , beginning in 1900 . The house ' s original configuration was a front parlour , hallway / stairs , kitchen and scullery on the ground floor , a landing and three bedrooms on the upper floor , and an outside lavatory and coal hole in the back yard . No . 1 shared its layout with Nos . 5 , 9 and 13 in having its staircase to the right of the rooms ( the other houses in the street were mirror images ) . On 9th August 1902 , the Grimshaws , the first family to live in Coronation Street , moved into No . 1 . Modifications . In 1960 , 1 Coronation Street was a house befitting the elderly couple who lived there . The scullery had been converted into a kitchen and the back room turned into a dining room , but the decor was old - fashioned , with Albert Tatlock retaining Dinky Low ' s sideboard which was given to him when he moved into the house in 1919 , and a monolithic mantlepiece - the room ' s central feature - looming over the table . Albert was happy with No . 1 the way it was and , particularly after wife Bessie ' s death , made few changes to the house . One thing which did interest Albert was gardening . In 1964 , he planned to turn No . 1 ' s yard into a garden and got Stan Ogden to help him lift the flagstones . They uncovered a bomb , dropped there during the Manchester Blitz , which was defused by the army . Albert gave up his plans for a garden and got an allotment instead . When Albert had to share his house with someone , their opinions about its decor were rarely flattering . In 1969 , Albert ' s housekeeper Effie Spicer decorated the house as a surprise for him , resulting in Albert throwing her out . Susan Barlow found No . 1 depressing , causing Bet Lynch to offer to decorate it for Albert , although he said he ' d do it himself . Ken Barlow too hated the antique look of the house and in 1973 decorated the downstairs rooms and put in a new cooker . Jerry Booth installed the cooker but didn ' t seal the pipe properly , which resulted in Albert being gassed and hospitalised . In 1981 , the front parlour was converted into a bedroom for Albert as Ken and Deirdre Barlow had just married and decided to live at No . 1 with Deirdre ' s daughter Tracy Langton . Bert Tilsley decorated the house at the same time , but got into trouble with the DOS in doing so as he had been paid £30 for the job while claiming dole . Two years later , the Barlows bought the house and modernised the kitchen , and decorated the back room again in 1984 ; they had cancelled their plans to buy a house in Buxton Close to buy No . 1 and Deirdre was determined not to live in a " museum " of a house . Further decorations took place in the kitchen in 1990 - after it was gutted by a chip pan fire inadvertently caused by Tracy - the back room in 1995 , 1996 and 2004 , and the front room in 2009 . In 2011 , Becky McDonald smashed her way into No . 1 with a sledgehammer in an attempt to get to Tracy and kill her for contacting Social Services over her and Steve McDonald paying Kylie Turner to leave Becky ' s nephew Max Turner in their care . Becky smashed the front door and the table and chairs before Steve told her that he was the one who told Social Services , causing her to back down . Furniture - wise , the back room has kept the same layout consisting of the mantelpiece with table and chairs , and a sofa parallel to the door to the hall , and , of course , Albert ' s old sideboard . See also . Note