Remember the famous album cover The Beatles, where all 4 musicians cross the road at a pedestrian crossing? So, the photo was taken in London:

From February to August 1969, the musicians worked on their last album Abbey Road (“Abby Road”) in a recording studio on Abbey Road. Having chosen the working title of the new disc - "Everest", the musicians even planned to fly to the Himalayas to make a cover there, but everything turned out differently. The band members were already in a strained relationship by that time, so the long trip did not arouse much enthusiasm in anyone.

Paul McCartney offered to take a photo right on the street and even sketched a draft.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono found a photographer - Ian Macmillan.

The photo session took place on August 8, 1969 at about 11:30 am right outside the recording studio. Already in those years, Abbey Road was one of the busiest in the city - the police agreed to block traffic for only 10 minutes.

Ian Macmillan filmed the musicians from the stairs. As the photographer recalls, after taking a few shots, he let the crowded cars pass, and then quickly photographed again. The photo that made the cover was the 5th of six taken. Only on it the musicians, as the photographer had planned, kept pace.

It even has a webcam installed. Even though this is one of the busiest streets in London, you may be able to take pictures "like the Beatles" - especially if you come with a group.

In mid-1969, The Beatles recorded their last joint album, which was called Abbey Road. Many consider it the best album of the famous four, despite the fact that later Lennon spoke of it extremely negatively. Recording of the disc took place in an atmosphere of open hostility between all members of the group, but despite this (or maybe because of this), many of the songs on the album have a cheerful and joyful sound.

The album's working title was "Everest"; it was even suggested that the band would have to travel to the Himalayas for the cover photo. But they, of course, had neither the time nor the inclination. When asked where they wanted to be photographed, Paul McCartney replied: "Why not take it on a regular street." He quickly threw a draft of the future cover on a sheet of paper. Meanwhile, John Lennon and Yoko Ono agreed with their friend, 30-year-old English photographer Ian Macmillan.

Ian Macmillan at that time was little known. He graduated from high school in 1954, then briefly worked as an apprentice manager in small firm. Since 1959, Macmillan became a photographer, in the early 1960s, his photographs began to appear in the English press. In the mid-sixties, he met and became friends with Yoko Ono, who in turn introduced him to Lennon.

The famous photograph was taken on August 8, 1969, around half past eleven. “I remember we hired a policeman to stop the traffic while I climbed up the stepladder and took pictures,” recalled Ian Macmillan, “I took a couple of photos of The Beatles crossing the street in one direction. Then we passed the crowded cars, and they went in the other direction - I took a few more pictures. In the end, I chose the fifth shot out of six. It was the only shot where the legs of all four were in an inverted 'V' shape, which is what I was aiming for."

This photo has become the most popular in the music world - even more famous than Richard Avedon's The Beatles, which is one of the twenty most expensive photographs in the world. Every year, thousands of fans gather at the now famous pedestrian crossing. Everyone dreams of taking a picture a la the Beatles, although it is not so easy: Abbey Road is a rather busy street, and no one stops traffic for the sake of tourists.

Anna Gruzdeva

American tourist from Florida Paul Cole came to London with his wife. On August 8, 1969, he left the hotel for some air. He was sick as hell of going to museums and just wanted to stand and see what was going on. Paul got into a conversation with a policeman who was sitting in a parked police van. While they were talking, Paul noticed that several people had gathered at the crosswalk and four of them began to walk back and forth on the zebra, and another took pictures of them.

- Some eccentrics, - laughed Paul, - who walks barefoot in London.

The Beatles' twelfth album was originally going to be called Everest, named after the cigarettes smoked by EMI engineer Jeff Emerick:

There was a picture of a mountain on the pack, which the group liked very much. But they decided to abandon the name, because no one wanted to go to Nepal for a photo shoot. We decided to get out of the situation in the simplest way - to be photographed right next to the studio.

Before that, Paul drew and showed the photographer how he imagines the frame for the cover of the new album:

On the appointed day, around half past eleven, photographer Ian Macmillan arrived at the EMI recording studio at 3 Abbey Road. He was friends with Yoko Ono and she invited him to shoot. The Beatles were waiting for him on the steps at the entrance to the studio.

At first, Paul was in beach slippers, then he took off his shoes and remained barefoot.

Macmillan took six shots within ten minutes:

The fifth image was selected for the case. It turned out to be Alan Flanagan, Steve Millwood and Derek Seagrove - they were decorating the EMI studio and returning from lunch. They are on the far left of the frame.

The picture, taken at a pedestrian crossing next to the studio on Abbey Road, was another reason for fans of the conspiracy theory about Paul's death in a car accident to find new "evidence" to confirm this theory. The number on the Volkswagen LMW281F, which was in the picture, was read as "Paul would be 28 years old if he were alive." And the crossing itself was considered a funeral procession - in front of John in white as a priest, at the end George in jeans as an undertaker, and Paul himself with his eyes closed, barefoot, cigarette in his hand, and even walking out of step with the others. Real dead man, yes.

The Beetle that sold at auction in 2001 for £2,530 is now in the Volkswagen Museum in Wolfsburg.

This girl in blue on the back of the record sleeve also fit into the conspiracy theory about the death of Paul and his replacement with a double. It was considered that this was the same Rita who was driving the car. In fact, after finishing filming at the crossing, McMillan began to look for a suitable place for a photo with the name of the street. And found it at the intersection with Alexandra Road. The picture with a woman accidentally caught in the frame seemed to him the best.

Forty years ago, at 11:35 a.m., the Beatles crossed a quiet street in north London on a zebra.

The photo session for their new album "Abbey Road" took place a few meters from the recording studio of the same name and took about ten minutes - photographer Ian MacMillan took only six shots, for this he had to climb a stepladder.

Since then, the cover of the new album has become a legend for two reasons - no cover like this has become the object of so many imitations, and no cover like this has spawned so many conspiracy legends.

For crazed fans with inflamed imaginations, this was the ultimate proof of the delusional legend of the time - that Paul McCartney is really dead.

According to this legend, Paul died in a car accident and was replaced by a doppelgänger. The band, legend has it, felt guilty about this deception and placed hidden signs on the album cover for their fans.

Thus, even today, despite Sir Paul's pronounced health, they continue to insist that if you look closely at the images on the front and back cover, you will find symbols of death hidden there.

There is no doubt that this album meant only one death. It was not yet known to the public at that time that the Beatles were in the last stages of disintegration, and this was their last album.

Relations between the band members deteriorated so much that they abandoned the original title of the Everest album and the Himalayan photography, and instead filmed near the studio - and this was the only thing they did by mutual agreement.

Die-hard fans, however, could read much more from the photographs.

1.FUNERAL

The procession of the Beatles, walking along the "zebra", means a funeral for Paul. John Lennon walks in front in a white suit and symbolizes a priest. Ringo Star is a mourner dressed in black. George Harrison, in a scruffy shirt and jeans, represents the gravedigger. Paul is wearing old suit and he is the only one who goes barefoot. He later explained that he started filming in sandals, but later took them off as it was a very hot day. Adherents of the legend say that if this is true, then walking on hot asphalt is uncomfortable, and this once again confirms that Pol is a corpse.

2. CIGARETTE

Paul is left-handed, but here he is holding a cigarette in his right hand. Cigarettes are commonly referred to as "nails in the coffin." Thus, this is a sign that Paul's "coffin lid" is boarded up, and the man in the photo is his doppelgänger.

Paul is also out of step with the rest of the group. Everyone has a left foot in front, and Paul has a right foot, which again confirms that he is different from the others.

3. REGISTRATION NUMBER

The white Volkswagen Beetle in the background has registration number LMW 28IF. Conspiracy theorists say this means Paul would have been 28 IF he hadn't died.

Paul was actually 27 years old when "Abbey Road" was released, but fortunately for conspiracy theorists, Indian mystics calculate a person's age from conception, not birth, so in this case, Paul would indeed be 28 years old.

This is supported by the fact that the musicians were famous adherents of the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. LMW is also believed to stand for "Linda McCartney Weeps" - referring to Paul's wife, whom he married earlier this year.

4. spectators

In the background, a small group of white-clad people stand on one side of the street, and a lone person stands on the other side.

Does this mean that Paul is alone and separate from the others?

5. POLICE MINIBUS

There is a black police van parked on the right side of the street, a reference to the police remaining silent on "Paul's death".

According to legend, the band's manager Brian Epstein bought this silence, and the presence of a police "bean" in the photo is another "thank you".

6.LINE OF MACHINES

You can draw a line from the Volkswagen Beetle to the three cars in front of it. If it is passed through their right wheels, it will just touch Paul's head, and according to theorists, this means that Paul received a head injury in a car accident.

7. BLOOD SPOT

A stain can be seen on the Australian version of the album. It can be seen as a bloodstain on the road, it is located between Ringo and John, indirectly confirming the version of a car accident.

8. SHUTTERED LETTER S

On the back of the cover there is a photo of the Abbey Road sign, and above is the inscription BEATLES. The crack passing through the letter S is clearly visible - it is believed that this indicates problems within the group.

To the left of the Beatles inscription is a group of eight dots. If you connect them together, you get the number 3.

Does this mean there are three Beatles left?

10. IMAGE OF DEATH

If the cover is held with the back facing you and rotated 45 degrees counterclockwise, the image of the Demon of Death can be clearly seen. Some people believe that this means that someone in the group has died.

11. GIRL

No one knows who the blue-clad girl on the back cover is. On the night that "the car crash happened", according to the followers of the legend, it was raining heavily, and Paul gave a lift to one fan named Rita. It must be the same girl, and she is either running away from the scene of the accident or running to call for help.

12. Paul's resting place

If the inscription on the wall is broken into separate sections, then you can get an encrypted message - “Be At Les Abbey”. In numerology, the next two letters - R and O are the 18th and 15th letters of the alphabet. Putting them together (33) and multiplying by the number of letters (2), we get the number 66 - the year in which Paul supposedly died.

The number 3 also corresponds to the letter C, so 33 corresponds to SS. CC means the short name of Cecilia, and adherents of the legend believe that Paul was buried at St Cecilia's Abbey in Ryde on the Isle of Wight.

I want to warn you right away that I took all the information from open sources and something from my own memory. I can assume that people from among the real fans of the Beatles are very jealous of the history of the group and the details associated with it. I apologize if I made any inaccuracies.

2. For starters, I want to show a diagram of how to get to this place in London. You need to take the metro to St. John's Wood station (link to the metro map) and go down about 400 meters to Abbey Road:

3. We leave the subway. This is what the station looks like:

3. We go down the Grove End Road. On the left side drew attention to the hospital of St.John and St.Elizabeth. To the left, the window of the hospital dining room overlooks the planted flowers on the hill. What care for the sick:

4. At the intersection of Abbey Road and Grove End there is a memorial to the famous sculptor Edward Onslow Ford:

5. The memorial offers a view of the very passage where the Beatles and just tourists are constantly crowded:

6. Everyone wants to get themselves in the frame at the transition:

7. And back in 1969, during a photo shoot of the Beatles, everything was different:

8. There are many legends about the history of this cover and photography. Why is Paul barefoot, why is John in white, etc. There is a lot of information on the net, here are a couple of links to these topics and:

9. Well, according to tradition, photos with me are clickable. In order to add my LJ as a friend, you can click on my cool scarf:

10. Let's look at the transition closer. They say (write) that he was slightly shifted from his historical place. Read the details on Wikipedia:

11. Well, we continue to admire the creativity of enthusiastic:

12. Asians have always been famous for plastic:

13. Look, the same guy as in the first photos. Although a lot of time has passed. Everyone walks and walks along the transition. Enjoys and angers car drivers:

14. Let's take a break from the Beatles for a while and go a little further along Abbey Road. Literally 200 meters away is a very beautiful Baptist church Abbey Road Baptist Church:

15. Pay attention to the car behind the fence. The parishioners arrived

16. Well, we'll go back, because we haven't looked at another Abbey Road Studios legend:

17. She continues to work today thanks to her popularity:

Very famous world musicians recorded here. From Russia, in 2006, the group Mashina Vremya recorded their album Time Machine here. Andrei Makarevich spoke very flatteringly about the work on the album at that time.

18. Entrance:

19. The same porch 1969:

20. They didn’t let me inside:

22. A few more places where fans love to leave their footprints here. Brickwork studio fence:

24. And the gate supports:

26. Another attraction is the studio webcam:

It is directed to the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing. If you go to the studio's website, you can see what's happening online. Here is a link to the camera: http://www.abbeyroad.com/Crossing. Picture delay about 2 minutes.

28. And finally, a bench, which indicates in which area of ​​London the famous crossing is located:

In conclusion, I propose to watch my video, the frames of which were shot in parallel with the photos of this post:

That's all. See previous parts