Abbey Road

Abbey Road
The iconic Abbey Road street sign
Location	St. John's Wood, London, UK
Length (mi)	1.3 miles (2.1 km)
Direction	North-west
Start	Quex Road, Kilburn
End	Grove End Road, St. John's Wood
Landmarks	Abbey Road Studios; Abbey Road zebra crossing

Abbey Road is a thoroughfare located in the borough of Camden and the City of Westminster in London running roughly northwest to southeast through St. John's Wood, near Lord's Cricket Ground.

The north-western end of Abbey Road begins in Kilburn, at the intersection of Quex Road and West End Lane; it continues south-east for roughly a mile, crossing Belsize Road, Boundary Road, Blenheim Terrace and Marlborough Place, ending at the intersection of Grove End Road and Garden Road.

The Abbey National Building Society (later the Abbey) was founded in 1874 as The Abbey Road & St John's Wood Permanent Benefit Building Society in a Baptist church on Abbey Road.

EMI's Abbey Road Studios are located at the south-eastern end, at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood. The Beatles and many other famous popular music performers have recorded at this studio, and The Beatles named their final 1969 studio LP Abbey Road. The album's cover photograph shows the four group members walking across the zebra crossing located just outside the studio entrance. As a result of its association with The Beatles, since 1970 this section of Abbey Road has been featured on the London tourism circuit.

The crossing featured on the Beatles cover, as well as the crossing directly north of it, have become popular photo-opportunity areas, despite the road still being a busy thoroughfare for traffic. The iconic Beatles album cover has been parodied many times over the years on the crossing.

The tin street sign (pictured above) on the corner of Grove End Road and Abbey Road was recently removed as well. The street sign is now mounted high on the building on the corner, to save the local council the expense of cleaning and replacing the sign, which was frequently defaced and stolen. The council repaints the wall next to the crossing every three months to cover fans' graffiti.^[1]

Gallery

References

1. ^  Pollard, Lawrence (7 August 2009) "Revisiting Abbey Road 40 Years On". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8188475.stm. BBC World News. Retrieved on 9 August 2009.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Abbey Road

• Abbey Road London, Quicktime VR
• Abbey Road webcam
• Look at Abbey Road live
• Satellite View of Crosswalk / Zebra crossing

Coordinates: 51°31′59.3″N 0°10′42.6″W / 51.533139°N 0.1785°W / 51.533139; -0.1785

• Google Street View of Crosswalk / Zebra crossing