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The Abbey Road zebra crossing made famous by The Beatles could soon be monitored by a lollipop person to improve safety.
The west London crossing was made famous 45 years ago when Paul, John, George and Ringo walked across it for the cover of their 11th album, the aptly named Abbey Road. The crossing is outside the studios at which the album was recorded, and is now one of the biggest free tourist attractions in the city.
It's not without its problems though - people living in the area have complained of traffic issues, graffiti and lack of pedestrian safety.
Visited Abbey Road Studios, contributed to the graffiti, and walked across Abbey Road today 🌻 pic.twitter.com/MWQR02E2I3
— Sophie Whisnant (@luvsopha) July 29, 2014
Growing up listening to the Beatles and actually getting to see where they recorded and abbey road made my life pic.twitter.com/sVcUKQ3c8N
— sav (@svannahxel) July 27, 2014
According to The Evening Standard, Councillor Lindsey Hall said: "We have got to the point it has become the second most popular free tourist attraction in London. The only difficulty is that it does mean thousands and thousands of people coming into a small part of Westminster which is not good for tourists in this space.
"It is quite hard to police it 24/7, we have got to do something. It is a very busy through road, we have had real issues of double decker coaches parking up on double yellow lines."
She added: "'Obviously we don't want to be spoilsports, we are really proud of our musical heritage. I've seen huge double-decker buses parking on double yellow lines right outside the studio, causing total chaos to traffic and causing danger to people trying to get their photograph."
The 45th anniversary of the taking of the album cover was celebrated on Friday (8 August), with lookalikes recreating the image in celebration.
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