Brookside Close is situated in the West Derby area of Liverpool, which is five miles away from the shopping parade situated in Childwall. Unlike other soaps Brookside brought a real housing estate to use. From a distance the close looks like any other housing estate until you get nearer and find a barrier preventing access from the public and a security hut. Mersey TV own all thirteen houses/bungalows but only six of them are used for filming. The other houses are used for make up, wardrobe and the all important staff canteen.

Inside the houses they seem quite small once they are filled up with the cast and crew and all the equipment. The sound quality is improved by using acoustic tiles on the ceiling. Each of the houses have hot and cold water, they are properly heated and all the kitchen appliances are in working order. However the wardrobes upstairs are used for filming scenes in the bedroom to provide more space for the camera's.Outside the plants and flowers are all real and a gardener looks after them. There is only one fake item on the close and that is the letterbox but this is occasionally used by visitors.

Five minutes away from the close is the campus manor (which used to be an old college) and the shopping parade. The college has it's own courtroom, and the empty classes provide a restaurant and registry offices etc.

The Life Of A Brookside Actor.

Working as a Brookside actor involves a five day week and sometimes weekends when filming special episodes. Depending on the amount of scenes to be filmed Actor/Actresses usually start their day at around 8.oo in the morning.

On arrival actors/actresses head for the make up department where a make up artist spends around 40 minutes applying make up. Before a scene can be filmed it usually takes about a week to rehearse, during this time the actor/actresses can request that something is changed in the script.

It's soon time for a coffee break. Between scenes it's time to relax and their is usually time for some reading or you could watch TV Etc. The best place to be is the green room where the cast get to meet up and have a chat.

Apart from filming Actors/actresses are sometimes asked to do activities outside of work such as giving a lesson on Art to students or doing an interview.