Album Cover - Abbey Road Studios

Published: 2009-10-25

Modern street sign from Abbey Road in 2007

Old fashioned street sign from Abbey Road in 2007

The famous crossing pictured on the sleeve

The famous crossing from opposite side of the street looking at the studio

Graffiti left by fans adorn the Abbey Road walls August 2007

The visitors who write on the wall are from all over the globe

More graffiti, the white parts of the wall are regularly washed and repainted white

Graffiti centre reads: Its better to burn out than become like the Rolling Stones

Abbey Road studios entrance, on the left hand side of the entrance there is a commemorative plaque.

The famous crossing as seen from outside the studio gates.

The photo used for the cover of the Abbey Road album.

The Beatles - Abbey Road

The house at number 3 Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, was originally purchased by EMI in 1929 with a view to transform it into the World’s first custom built recording studio. Work began on the sixteen roomed residence, (nine bedrooms, five reception rooms, two servant rooms, a wine cellar and 250 foot garden) and in just under two years it was complete. Three varying sized studios had been built in the garden and neighbouring garden spaces in order to accommodate the different categories of music which were being recorded at that time — a full orchestra, string quartets or choral work, and instrumental soloists and singers. Studio 1, Studio 2 and Studio 3 became the first custom built studio complex of their kind anywhere in the World, and attracted the greatest musicians in the World to its door.

The legendary cover for the album Abbey Road was taken by photographer Iain MacMillan on Friday the 8th of August, 1969. Allegedly, what we refer to as Abbey Road was going to be called Everest (after a brand of cigarettes, smoked by the Beatles' engineer, Geoff Emerick), and the Beatles were going to be photographed at the foot of the same famous mountain in the Himalayas. In the end, they couldn't be bothered. One of them (probably Paul) said: Hey, why don't we just have our picture taken as we walk across the crossing just outside here and call the LP Abbey Road? All having agreed on this, John contacted a photographer friend of his and Yoko's, Iain MacMillan, and a photo shoot was set up. At 11.35, MacMillan stood on a stepladder and took six photos of the group walking across, while a policeman held up traffic. Some time later, Paul McCartney studied the negatives under a magnifying glass and chose the image (no.5) that is now so familiar.

The LP came out and became the world's no. 1 selling LP, Abbey Road became a household word, the cover inspired countless of other hopeful bands to imitate the sleeve, and even EMI's recording studios were instantly renamed.

Abbey Road studios remains today but are not open to the public, most fans will have to contend with passing the crossing and leaving some grafitti on the wall outside of the studios. Typically the grafitti will be in a multitude of different languages, the walls are re-painted regularly but soon fill up with grafitti again.