The Beatles Tour of London (originated by Richard Jones in 1988) is your opportunity to discover the locations associated with the fab four.
The pubs, the clubs, the theatres, the recording studios, the film locations and the homes - will all come together on a tour that is brim full with Beatles memories and which will have you, quite simply, longing for yesterday.
Okay, that's enough trying to cram as many references to Beatles songs onto the page as possible!
THE BIRTHPLACE OF BEATLE MANIA
We begin at the London Palladium where, following their appearance on Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium, on Sunday 13th October 1963, Britain as a whole sat up and took notice of this new group from Liverpool.
It most certainly proves a somewhat spooky experience to stand on the spot where recent history was, well and truly, made.
WHERE PAUL MET LINDA
From here we take a nostalgic stroll along Carnaby Street, the epicentre of swinging London in the 1960′s, to see the club that was once a popular haunt of the Beatles following late night recording sessions and where Paul McCartney met Linda Eastman on 15th May 1967.
THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
The walk then takes a Long and Winding stroll across Oxford Street to walk along a thoroughfare lined by the shops of bespoke tailors to arrive at the former offices of the Beatles company Apple Corps.
It was in the recording studio, then located in the basement of this magnificent Georgian House, that much of the latter part of their film Let It Be was shot.
It was also, from the roof of the building, in that same film, that, on 30th January 1969, the Beatles gave their last public performance and brought the West End traffic to a halt!
WHERE JOHN MET YOKO
The tour then heads along a street of extremely elegant shops, at many of which the Beatles used to shop in the 1960''s, to duck into a tiny alleyway that emerges into a hidden courtyard, where we will stand outside the former Indica Art Gallery, where John Lennon met Yoko Ono.
Across the court from this true rock landmark stands the building where another club, that the Beatles used to frequent, was based and where Jimi Hendrix got one of his earliest breaks.
BOUTIQUES AND BUSTS
There then follows a short tube ride to the Baker Street area where we take a look at more locations that featured in Beatles story.
The locations visited on this section of the Beatles Tour include:-
- The premises from which the Beatles Apple store attempted to add even more colour to the psychedelic streets of 1960′s London.
- The house where Paul McCartney lodged with the parents of his then girlfriend, the actress Jane Asher, and where he and John composed I Want To Hold Your Hand.
- The Registry Office where two of the fab four were married, Paul McCartney tying the knot here twice.
- The flat where Ringo, John, Yoko Ono and Jimi Hendrix lived – albeit not all at the same time. It was here that John and Yoko were raided by the police and found to be in possession of a small amount of cannabis.
ABBEY ROAD
Having uncovered all these wonderful locations, the tour takes a short journey to St John's Wood where you can cross over the iconic pedestrian crossing that was immortalised by the Beatles on the cover of their Abbey Road album.
The Beatles Tour ends outside the Abbey Road studious where many of the Beatles most famous songs were recorded and where fans from all over the world still arrive to scrawl messages on the white stone wall in homage to four lads from Liverpool who came to London in the early 1960′s and, in so doing, helped change the world.