The legendary cultural landmark that has attracted fans from around the world, the Beatles’ Abbey Road Studios were officially declared a historic building today.
Originally a 9-bedroom Georgian townhouse built in the 1830’s, the building was later converted to apartments. Gramophone Company bought the building in 1931 and converted the structure into recording studios. The Gramophone Company morphed into the Columbia Gramophone Company to become EMI which assumed ownership of the studios renamed EMI Studios and then Abbey Road in 1970. The studio will forever be associated with The Beatles who, with Sir George Martin, revolutionized recording techniques with flanging, recording backwards, double tracking and many, many more ground-breaking advances.
The zebra crossing photo of The Beatles taken by Iain Macmillan in 1969 became a mecca for music fans. However, the original location was moved in the ’70’s from the left side of the Belisha beacon (adjacent to John Lennon in the photo) to the right side of the beacon.
English Heritage spokeswoman Helen Bowman said government’s move “has probably been sped up” by recent speculation over the studios’ future.
