The world's most annoying zebra crossing: Abbey Road live stream
Warning: you may spend hours mesmerized by this web cam.
Outside the studio where The Beatles recorded their top-selling album of all time, a strange phenomenon can be observed at almost any hour of the day: tourists, queuing up to walk halfway across a pedestrian crossing and then freeze – again, and again, and again.
The good news is that you don't need to buy a ticket to London to watch the tourists play in the traffic. Abbey Road Studio has set up a 24-hour streaming web cam. And it's as addictive as Big Brother. Only with less nudity and more stupidity.
The mid-street freeze is in all in aid of attempts to recreate The Beatle's 1969 album cover (see above).
It was the last album The Beatles ever produced in studio together, and tensions were running high. John Lennon refused to perform on four of the tracks – including Maxwell's Silver Hammer – and Paul McCartney quit the group a year later.
Despite all the drama, the album is considered one of the best they ever produced. It sold four million copies in its first two months of release, and is frequently counted among the best albums ever produced.
The famous cover shot of the album was taking during a 10-minute shoot on 8 August 1969. Photographer Iain Macmillan climbed up a step ladder to get the perfect shot while a policeman held up traffic. The idea for the shot was Paul McCartney's. The album cover included the picture, and nothing else – no band name, no album name.
The white VW Beetle parked in the background belonged to a tenant in a nearby block of flats, who said his license plate – LMW 281F – was repeatedly stolen after the album come out. He eventually gave up and auctioned off his car in the 80s.
