It’s the most famous zebra crossing in the world. And just reading that sentence has given you the mental picture of what I’m talking about: four guys crossing the street, one in denim, one barefoot and holding a cigarette, one in black and the fourth all in white.
It is, of course, the cover of The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ album, the last of the 12 albums that the Fab Four recorded, which was released in September 1969. (‘Let It Be’ was recorded before, but released later. Keep up at the back.)
The crossing on the road just outside what was then the EMI Studios where the album was recorded is now a place of – well, not so much pilgrimage (although I’m sure that applies to some visitors), but of what? Cliche? Parody? A wish to belong? Whatever the state of mind is that makes us want to follow a herd?
Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, turn up each year to photograph themselves on the crossing, many of them doing a curiously exaggerated walking motion – arms outstretched, palms showing – that is nothing like the original photo taken that August day by Iain Macmillan. (A policeman held up the traffic for ten minutes while Macmillan stood on a stepladder. Six shots were taken, only one of which was usable.) I’ve taken lots of people there myself on Beatles or rock ‘n’ roll tours, standing in the middle of the street snapping away as they’ve strolled across.
Abbey Road is a bit of a bugger if you’re driving along it, because generally at a zebra you stop to give way to pedestrians crossing. Here though, about 95% of the people waiting to cross want you to drive on so they can get a clear picture; as a driver you’ve no way of knowing whether you should obey the Highway Code or just plough on regardless.
It is quite nice though that a tourist site hasn’t yet become commoditised and monetised (although the studio has a large – and rather good – shop). It is free to cross and take your pic, just as it is to write your name or scrawl a message on the street wall of the studio, which are whitewashed every couple of months to provide a blank canvas for other waves of visitors.
The studios were listed in February 2010 (Grade II), coinciding with the then owners of EMI reportedly putting the building up for sale, the fear being that it would be bought by developers and be converted into flats. The listing stymied that and the studios continue, now owned by Virgin Records.
The crossing followed suit and was listed in December 2010, for its historical interest (i.e. that photo again), which means that it can’t be altered or (re)moved without getting official planning consent. There was a belief/rumour that the current site of the crossing is different to that of 1969, but that has been refuted by those who have studied the album cover and the general street furniture.
What I hadn’t appreciated was that when the photos were taken zebra crossings were less than 20 years old. I’d sort of imagined them as somehow timeless, always existing (or from the 1920s at the latest), as longstanding as postboxes, telephone kiosks and double-decker buses. However, the first permanent one had been installed in Slough as recently as 1951, after various experimental placements in the previous couple of years.
The flashing orange globes that mark them – called Belisha Beacons after Leslie Hore-Belisha, the 1930s Minister of Transport who introduced them – therefore predate the zebras by 17 years. Prior to the black and white stripes on the road crossings were marked simply by a row of studs in the carriageway. Apparently there are fewer zebras than there used to be, as they are regarded as being less safe than light-controlled crossings, so many have been replaced.
It’s not known when the Abbey Road crossing was first installed (English Heritage suggest the stripes date to the 1950s, but imply that the actual crossing and the beacons are older), but the listing means that they might continue to exist even if every other zebra crossing in the country were to be replaced.
You can watch the crossers dodging the cars and taking their photos on the webcam positioned just outside the studios. Hours of fun for the whole family.
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