4 Back Gas Street, on the rough side of Weatherfield, was the house in which Alec Gilroy was born on 22nd May 1935. Alec was the second of Reg and Mabel Gilroy's children, after Edna. As they grew up, Alec and Edna became accustomed to the house's peculiar smell which was caused by fumes from the local gasworks, where Reg worked as a stoker, and the lingering odour from Tasker's Glue Factory clinging to Mabel's clothes.