Abbey Road is a thoroughfare in the borough of Camden and the City of Westminster in London, running roughly northwest to southeast through St. John's Wood, near Lord's Cricket Ground. It is part of the B507 road. This road is best known for the Abbey Road Studios and the 1969 album, Abbey Road, by The Beatles.

The north-western end of Abbey Road begins in Kilburn, at the junction with Quex Road and West End Lane. The road was once a track leading to Kilburn Priory and its associated Abbey Farm, and was developed in the early 19th century. It continues south-east for roughly a mile, crossing Belsize Road, Boundary Road, and Marlborough Place, ending at the junction of Grove End Road and Garden Road.

The Abbey National Building Society (now Santander UK) was founded in 1874 as The Abbey Road & St John's Wood Permanent Benefit Building Society in a Baptist church on Abbey Road.

EMI's Abbey Road Studios are located at the south-eastern end, at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood. The Beatles and many other famous popular music performers have recorded at this studio, and The Beatles named their last studio LP after this street. The album's cover photograph shows the four group members walking across the zebra crossing just outside the studio entrance. As a result of its association with The Beatles, since 1970 this part of Abbey Road has been featured on the London tourism circuit. In December 2010 the crossing was given Grade II Listed Building status by English Heritage despite its age not being contemporary to that era.

Abbey Road is the 11th studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom and on 1 October 1969 in the United States. The recording sessions for the album were the last in which all four Beatles participated. Although Let It Be was the final album that the Beatles completed before the band's dissolution in April 1970, most of the album had been recorded before the Abbey Road sessions began. A double A-side single from the album, "Something"/"Come Together", released in October, topped the Billboard chart in the US.

Abbey Road is a rock album that incorporates genres such as blues, pop and progressive rock, and it makes prominent use of the Moog synthesizer and the Leslie speaker. Side two contains a medley of song fragments edited together to form a single piece. The album was recorded amidst a more collegial atmosphere than the Get Back/Let It Be sessions earlier in the year, but there were still frequent confrontations within the band, particularly over Paul McCartney's song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", one of four tracks on which John Lennon did not perform. He had privately left the group by the time the album was released and McCartney publicly quit the following year.

Abbey Road Studios (formerly known as EMI Studios) is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, which owned it until Universal Music took control of part of EMI in 2012.

Abbey Road Studios is most notable as being the 1960s' venue for innovative recording techniques adopted by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Hollies, Badfinger and others. One of its earliest world famous artist clients was Paul Robeson, who recorded December 1931 and went on to record many of his best-known songs there.

Towards the end of 2009, the studio came under threat of sale to property developers. However, the British Government protected the site, granting it English Heritage Grade II listed status in 2010, thereby preserving the building from any major alterations.

History

Originally a nine-bedroom Georgian townhouse built in the 1830s on the footpath leading to Kilburn Abbey, the building was later converted to flats where the most flamboyant resident was Maundy Gregory.

Abbey Road most commonly refers to an album by The Beatles.

Abbey Road may also refer to:

See also