Crossing Abbey Road May Be a Cliche, But It's a Must-See Cliche."
By Paul Iorio
Yes, crossing Abbey Road may be a tourist cliche, but it also may be one of the main reasons to visit London, particularly if you're in the mood to celebrate the previously unreleased Beatles recordings and video footage being released this fall.
Truth is, people actually do have genuine fun walking the zebra crossing that the Beatles strolled across 56 years ago this month in a photo shoot for the "Abbey Road" album cover; tourists take off their shoes, do funny dances and get creative in all sorts of ways as their friends snap shots. [Check out the 24/7 Abbey Road live cam. Abbey Road live cam]
I don't think visitors take off their shirts and whoop it up when they see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum. In fact, it's a mostly dour crowd in some queues outside some of the main attractions -- full of people who are probably dying to exit to north London to see where the Beatles walked at their peak.
Let's get real: some of London's other traditional attractions are perhaps a bit overrated. St. Paul's Cathedral looks like a post office; the Palace of Westminster looks vaguely like a 19th century school for the blind (and is tonally at odds with the Ferris wheel nearby).
So, what else you got, mate?
A crowd waiting to make the crossing, August 10, 2025. [photo credit: Paul Iorio.]
The street, shown here in 2025, looks much as it did 56 years ago. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
The sign and gate in front of Abbey Road Studios. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
Getting to Abbey Road is easy, but you have to ride The Tube first. The Tube is efficient mass transit, no doubt, though the seats look like they have been urinated on recently and most stations could use a paint job. (Plus, you are always reminded to "mind the gap," the substantial chasm between the train and the platform in which you could easily lose your luggage or a small child. (Here's an idea: why don't they fix the gap instead? Maybe they should splurge on some cement for ramps.)
Anyway, from central London, you take The Underground's Jubilee line to the St. John's Wood's station and walk a few blocks along Grove End Road. A breeze.
The leafy suburb is one of the nabes where London really makes sense and seduces. It can occasionally look like the visual equivalent of a Beatles song (as opposed to other parts of London that look like a dandified Oakland without guns, but no less menacing). (And it looks like the same ten guys are in charge of creating the same style of graffiti on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.)
A driver showing off his 1920's Bentley at the crossing. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
Back to AR. First thing you notice is how narrow the crossing is. The album makes it look like it's a grand boulevard or some such, but it's a squat residential street in a bustling upscale subdivision.
Further, the walk doesn't lead directly to the Abbey Road Studio as the cover implies; the studio itself is yards away.
And it's a busy stretch with lots of traffic; look right as you cross or you'll end up flattened by a double decker bus. Amazing there aren't more casualties among American visitors.
Pedestrians running across the crossing, August 10, 2025. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
Astonishing that the city of London has not monetized the crossing, charging admission, blocking off traffic and putting footprints of the four Beatles where they walked. There's no plaque, no sign, no indication whatsoever that This Is The Place.
Also astonishing that the photo itself wasn't overthought by the photographer and the Fab Four back in '69. If they had had time to overdo it, they might have suggested, "What about if we were jaywalking across Abbey?" (as I suggested on social media weeks ago). "Or how 'bout a scenario where we're almost hit by a car while crossing?" Or on and on.
Instead, just six shots by Iain Macmillan, August 8, 1969, at 11:30 am, from the perch of a step ladder, in a shoot that lasted around ten minutes (because they had to get back to the studio to overdub "The End.")
Though the road itself looks much as it did back in the day, the nearby graffiti is thoroughly of the 2020s, with much of it not even Beatles-related.
The sign for The Abbey Road Shop has a wide range of graffiti. [photo by Paul Iorio]
The graffiti in front of the studio is a mix of Beatles and personal messages. [photo by Paul Iorio]
The sign and gate in front of Abbey Road Studios. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]St. John's Wood itself is also worth checking out with a quick walk up Abbey; several doors down you'll see The New London Synagogue, where all four Beatles attended the memorial service for their manager Brian Epstein in 1967.
The New London Synagogue, built in 1882, site of Brian Epstein's memorial service in 1967. [photo credit: Paul Iorio.]
And if you walk five blocks along Abbey, there's a shopping area with restaurants and a pizzeria on Blenheim Terrace.
There's also a neighborhood in the opposite direction of the crosswalk that's worth a look.
All told, it's the ecosystem where some of the greatest music of the past hundred years was created. Check it out at six or seven in the morning on a weekday to get the least amount of interference from other tourists as you dodge traffic for a picture (and make sure to listen to "Abbey Road" as you take the walk).
A great way to note the 55th anniversary of the death of the Beatles this year -- and to celebrate the release of the fourth volume of "Anthology" recordings and the ninth installment in its video series this fall.
It's one of the most satisfying cliches you'll ever be a part of!
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