Aug 8, 2019: Beatles Fans Recreate Abbey Road Album Cover on 50th Anniversary

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Beatles fans at the famed Abbey Road crosswalk, on August 8, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the album cover photo shoot

Beatles fans arrived in droves on August 8, 2019, to the Abbey Road crosswalk in the St. John’s Wood neighborhood of London. They were there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of when the Fab Four made the same walk across the iconic road on the same date in 1969, for the cover shoot of their Abbey Road album.

For the uninitiated, the “zebra” crossing that runs across the famed road, gives pedestrians the right-of-way. It’s a major intersection in the very neighborhood that houses the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles and others have recorded.

On a typical day, hundreds of fans will show up throughout the day to cross the road, often handing strangers their camera phones to snap their picture.

On Thursday, thousands of Beatles fans – many dressed in period Beatles costumes – reenacted the famous walk that John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison did on that August 8, 1969 day (and as countless other pilgrims have done ever since).

Watch some of the activity at the crosswalk on August 8, 2019

The album cover, with its iconic photo taken by Iain Macmillan, is distinctive for another reason. Its art director, John Kosh, told Best Classic Bands: “It was designed without a title and without the name of the band. I received an irate call from the chairman of EMI, Joseph Lockwood, in the middle of the night saying that no one would know what it was. But the next morning George Harrison reassured me: ‘We’re the f**king Beatles’.”

Related: Our interview with Kosh

Since 2010, EarthCam has been making it possible for almost 54 million global viewers to virtually “visit” Abbey Road crossing in London. EarthCam’s third-generation live camera system, located just outside Abbey Road Studios, features 4K streaming technology with high-quality 8-megapixel imagery to give viewers a glimpse of activities in the area including a 2018 sighting of Paul McCartney re-enacting the iconic cover photo for a crowd of fans.

Click here to watch the live view via EarthCam.

On the 50th anniversary of the album cover photo shoot, The Beatles announced that they would release deluxe 50th anniversary expanded editions of their 1969 studio masterpiece Abbey Road. Read our original coverage here. The recent editions are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.