I'm a huge fan of The Beatles, thanks to my mother and influences from my high school music teacher. So when there was a Groupon for a walking Beatles tour, I grabbed one for both Nick and I. We planned to go on Saturday and it started to rain shortly after I booked our appointment so we rescheduled for Sunday.
We met up at the Marble Arch near Hyde Park. The arch was erected as part of the newly rebuilt Buckingham Palace in 1825. It's said that traditionally only members of the Royal Family were allowed to pass through it. It stood as an entrance to the East Gardens until 1851 when it was closed, and the arch was relocated as a monument near the park.
I'll be honest, I had NO IDEA what the arch was but I made Nick take a picture with it anyway and googled it after :)
Although the arch has no Beatles significance, it made a great meeting place. We headed down the road and passed the hotel that Jimi Hendrix was staying at when he died, The Cumberland Hotel. On the way down the road we saw Madonna's flat she bought and lived in with Guy Ritchie. Apparently, tried to buy a entire building of houses but the development committee turned her down, so she purchased the left side of this flat for £7 million and the right side for £4 million wanting to turn it into one large home, but again the building committee turned her down again. So now she has two medium flats next to each other instead :)
We continued down the way to what used to be called "The Most Rock N Roll Flat in London" where Ringo lived. He threw tons of parties from the time he lived there until he moved out with his girlfriend. He sub-let to Jimi Hendrix and finally to John and Yoko. The basement had a recording studio, and is said to be the first place that "Yesterday" was ever laid down. The basement is also where John & Yoko took the photo for the cover of "Two Virgins" which was taken in their bedroom, not a studio.
The blue plaque you see is put there by the "English Heritage" to certify where a celebrity lived. There's only about 100 official plaques in London. To get one the celeb must have been dead for 10 years, or born over 100 years ago, which ever comes first... In 2010 John Lennon got his at this flat where he and Yoko lived in 1968.
We continued along the way and saw where Paul lived with Jane Asher. Our tour guide told us of the day Paul woke up with a tune in his head. He swore up and down he had heard the tune somewhere before but couldn't figure out where. He asked everyone in the Asher house where he was living and they all told him "No that's not a song, you just made that up" He quickly put some words to it "Scrambled eggs, oh baby how I love your legs" the tune turned into "Yesterday"
We went to Trident Studios that they used to put down some of their songs like "Hey Jude"
It was in a little alley and totally disguised, you'd never know it was there or that it was significant at all unless you read the one legal sheet of paper taped to the window with a list of what bands and what songs they recorded there.
We went through soho which was an amazing area that I can't wait to return to!
We saw the Palladium and the Marquee Club where the Beatles played while in London, walked through New Bond Street (another MUST revisit for me!) and along to Sevile Row (Yes, the tailor's road) to see where Apple Corp, the Beatles' own media company, was.
The rooftop is where the infamous rooftop concert took place. It was their last public appearance and was completely unannounced. Unfortunately, one of the tailors on the road called the police and the show was shut down after just 45 minutes.
Around the corner from the Apple Corp, and old Bond Street was Jimi's blue plaque.
We saw Paul's house he bought in 1966, and still lives in. The house is just a few blocks from Abbey Road studios
We finished our tour at Abbey Road studios and of course had to go across the zebra crossing which has changed just slightly since the famous photo. They added the zig zag lines which alert the motorists that a Zebra crossing is adjacent, and they've almost moved it by about 3 meters.
The tour lasted for almost three hours and we saw a lot of London in addition to the Beatles landmarks. Nick and I both agree that it was well worth the money for the tour.
I have a tour of Harry Potter landmarks with this same company coming up soon too, so watch for that!
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