London Construction Workers Use Coronavirus Lockdown To Restore Abbey Road Crosswalk
Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press
The Beatles had big plans for the cover of 1969’s Abbey Road.
One idea was to go to Mt. Everest.
Another was to go to a volcano in Hawaii or the Egyptian Pyramids.
In the end, the Fab Four simply decided to sod it all off and walk across a zebra crossing outside of Abbey Road recording studios.
Since the Fab Four strolled across the humble pedestrian crossing, millions of Beatles pilgrims have followed.
Recently the crossing was looking more than a little run down.
That is until a group of London construction workers, taking advantage of a lockdown imposed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, decided to give the national landmark at touch up.
And the Highways Maintenance crew has, going by photos provided by local observers, done an outstanding job.
Hungry for fame, success, and recognition, The Beatles would first visit the studios in 1962 to audition for EMI and later record their early singles.
With a few expectations, the fab four would record almost all of their material at the studio, which has since become a destination for Beatles fans and musicians alike.
Artists who have since made use of Abbey Road are Pink Floyd, Duran Duran, The Pretty Things, Elbow, Iron Maiden, Jamiroquai, Robert Fripp, Kate Bush, Oasis, Dido, Fats Waller, Connie Francis, Josh Groban, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Adam Ant, Radiohead, Al Stewart, Muse, XTC, The Zombies, Alanis Morissette, Take That, U2, Green Day, Bucks Fizz, The Killers, James Taylor, Peter & Gordon, Gnarls Barkley, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elliott Smith, Syd Barrett, Plácido Domingo, Michael Nyman, Sigur Rós, The Hollies, Manfred Mann, The Seekers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, John Mayer, Madness, Kanye West, Sarah Brightman and the Spice Girls.
The last Beatle to visit the crossing was Paul McCartney, who gave fans a solo reenactment of the iconic cover in 2018.
Recognized as a site of “huge cultural importance” Abbey Road’s pedestrian crossing and studios were heritage listed by the British government in 2010.
That odd fluke when you turn up to photograph an empty #abbeyroad and stumble across a team refreshing the iconic zebra crossing. @thebeatles @GettyImagesNews pic.twitter.com/RiW0NfJBeE
— Leon Neal (@tabascokid) March 24, 2020
