The front lawns are unkempt, moss has crept across the roofs and grass has sprouted between cracks in the pavement, but the red-brick houses of Brookside Close are still instantly familiar to fans of the soap opera that took its name. The 13 properties that featured in the programme from 1982 to 2003 have retained little of their former glory, but their place in television history was remembered yesterday when they fetched £735,000 at auction - £135,000 more than the original estimate.

The price, which works out at £56,500 per house, is a fraction of the £250,000 apiece once optimistically demanded by property developers, but double what Phil Redmond, the creator of Brookside, paid when he bought them in 1982.

The estate agent for the sale admitted that the properties had fallen into disrepair since filming ended but remarked that he found it impossible to enter the cul-de-sac without hearing the echoing drumbeats and synthesised horns of the Brookside theme tune.

It is just as well that the street still has a distinctive appearance, since the sign bearing its name was stolen long ago - no doubt by an opportunistic thief with an eye for memorabilia.

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Six of the properties are empty shells that were never fully equipped. The remaining seven, which were used to provide a canteen and other facilities for the cast and crew, are in urgent need of refurbishment.

The street, in the West Derby area of Liverpool, began to decline shortly after Channel 4 cancelled the show. Brookside, once the channel's biggest draw, steadily lost viewers from its peak of eight million until fewer than a million remained.

The houses were used, briefly, as a location for Hollyoaks - another Redmond soap - and were then sold to developers who hoped that fans would rush to buy a piece of television history. The demand did not meet their expectation.

The latest attempt to reinvigorate the street took place in September last year when Andrew Currie, a shoe shop entrepreneur turned property developer, paid £2.4million for the houses. Mr Currie, 43, put them on the market two months later with an asking price of £250,000 each.

When buyers failed to appear, his company, Marblespire, struggled to pay interest on its loan and went into receivership. Administrators put the houses back on the market in February for a total of £2million, but were unable to strike a deal despite interest from several potential buyers. The final deal, in which the houses would be sold for £900,000, fell through just before contracts were due to be exchanged.

Allsop auctioned the houses yesterday at a London hotel. Stuart Gayer, who prepared the sale, said that several telephone bidders competed for the properties before an anonymous Liverpudlian buyer emerged as the victor.

“Whoever has bought it will have to refurbish all the property,” he said. “I was a fan of Brookside in my youth, and when you walk on the site you can't help but whistle the theme tune. It just needs somebody to give it a bit of care and attention.”

If the buyer is a fan of the show, he or she will be delighted to find that one of the most important props remains intact. The patio that concealed the body of Trevor Jordache, a wife beater and child abuser murdered by his family, survives in all its glory.

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