Following the United Kingdom’s coronavirus lockdown, the empty streets allowed the Westminster City Council to give the Abbey Road zebra crossing in London made famous by the Beatles, a fresh lick of paint.
The Abbey Road thoroughfare in the borough of Camden, Westminster is synonymous with the Liverpool pop group whose popularity inspired the global phenomenon, ‘Beatlemania’. The Beatles named their 11th studio album after this road, where it was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in 1969, featuring the songs ‘Come Together’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun’.
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The well-known album cover depicts the band members walking across the road, featuring George Harrison (from the far left), following Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon, furthest right. In 2010, the Abbey Road crossing was declared a site of national importance by English Heritage.
On 24 March the city council took advantage of the vacant streets and a highway maintenance crew repainted the usually busy crossing.
‘This is a very busy zebra crossing and we repainted the line markings to ensure visibility and increased safety for drivers and pedestrians,’ a spokesperson for Westminster City Council told the Guardian. ‘Our contractors follow government advice on limiting the spread of COVID-19, including social distancing and hand washing.’
Having a laugh, some people reimagined the cover within the context of social distancing, editing out band members to achieve more than a meter’s space between them:
EMI have just released the new social distancing remix of Abbey Road… pic.twitter.com/2o6VYg9Zmi
— Tom Robinson (@gladtobegay) March 25, 2020
Check out these Abbey Road recreations from Beatles fans:
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Image: Abbey Road Studios via Facebook/@abbeyroad
