The Beatles’ iconic Abbey Road album cover turned an ordinary zebra crossing into one of the most famous streets in the world – and the band didn’t even mean to do it
Abbey Wood in St John’s Woods became the most iconic location for The Beatles’ fans.
The ordinary zebra crossing garnered legendary status after the four bandmates – George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon – strode across it for a photograph to go on their final album cover. On September 26, 1969, the band snapped the shot outside EMI studios in London, where they recorded most of their music.
Now, over 50 years later, the crossing has its own webcam and is listed as an iconic cultural site by English Heritage. Music fans and celebrities alike have proposed, held weddings and even scattered ashes on the black and white ground, with Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, the latest royal to recreate the historical photo.
Author Ken McNab, who wrote And in the End: The Last Days of the Beatles, previously told BBC’s Good Morning Scotland that the idea for the Abbey Road shot came from Paul, who had drawn a sketch of what he wanted. Then late Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan took an array of photos on a ladder in roughly 10 minutes, while a policeman blocked the oncoming traffic.
“They walked across the zebra crossing six times,” Ken said, adding that Iain chose the fifth walk for the cover because their legs were in a perfect ‘V’ formation. And the reason Paul was barefoot is reportedly because his shoes were too tight.
Even the title of the album came from the road, according to The Beatles expert Richard Porter, who organises London Beatles Walks tours. He told Sky News: “The original album title was going to be Everest, named after the favourite brand of cigarettes smoked by Geoff Emerick, the Beatles’ recording engineer.
“Someone had the bright idea that they should go to Mount Everest for the picture. They basically said no, we’re not going there, and they decided to call it Abbey Road and do the photo outside their studios. It was a lot easier, a lot cheaper, but it was almost by default, really, that the album was called Abbey Road.”
In 1996, a crazy conspiracy theory started doing the rounds that the Abbey Road cover represented a funeral procession, with John as the preacher, Ringo as the undertaker and George as the grave digger. Paul, being barefoot, was walking to his own funeral, it was claimed. Paul later parodied the whole affair in the artwork and title for his 1993 concert album Paul Is Live.
And as for the ‘mystery man’ on the right side of the cover, he was simply the world’s most epic photobomber. The figure, dressed in a brown coat and white shirt, was identified years later after numerous people came forward claiming to be him. He was actually an American tourist called Paul Cole, and was waiting for his wife when the pic was taken.
He previously told the Mirror: “[I told her] ‘I’ve seen enough museums. I’ll just stay out here and see what’s going on outside’. I just happened to look up, and I saw those guys walking across the street like a line of ducks. A bunch of kooks, I called them, because they were rather radical-looking at that time. You didn’t walk around in London barefoot.”
Paul was amazed when he later spotted himself in the background on an album cover. He said: “I saw the album and I recognised myself right away. I had a new sports jacket on and I’d just bought new shell-rimmed glasses. I told my kids, ‘Get a magnifying glass out and you’ll see me’.” Sadly, Paul passed away in 2008, when he was 98 years old.
