Family Visit Part 2: Beatles Walking Tour

My dad is a huge Beatles fan, and he really wanted to go to Liverpool, the Beatles' hometown, but my family simply didn't have enough time, only being in London 5 days as it was. And even though London does not have near as many Beatles-related sights as Liverpool, it still had many that Dad wanted to see, so we decided to go on a Beatles walking tour with London Walks, the same company that we had used for our Cambridge tour. We opted for their Wednesday afternoon "Magical Mystery Tour," which met just outside the Tottenham Court tube station at 2:00 p.m.

Our tour guide, Richard Porter, had a crazy smile, crazy hair, and an anecdote to fill every second of the tour. He holds the title "Beatles Brain of Britain" for good reason--the tour was interesting, entertaining, and jam-packed full of information.

Richard has been doing this for over 15 years and has met Paul McCartney several times. He owns a coffeeshop/Beatles memorabilia store in St. Johns Wood where he sells, among other things, copies of his own book and DVD on the Beatles in London.

We started the tour in Soho, where we saw the building housing MPL (McCartney Productions Limited) Communications; Trident Studios, where the Beatles recorded a few of their songs, including Hey Jude; the Palladium Theatre, where "Beatlemania" began when the Beatles appeared on "Sunday Night at the Palladium"--the top variety show of the time; Carnaby Street, made famous during the "Swinging Sixties" as a favorite haunt of pop stars; and a mural based on the Sgt Pepper album cover. Richard also pointed out other non-Beatles-related tidbits, such as the flat where Karl Marx lived when he was in London.

MPL Studios 2nd rowhouse from left; Marx's flat near the red neon sign.

Palladium Theatre; Soho Mural looking a lot like this.

We made our way to Mayfair and to 3 Savile Row, where the Beatles played their last concert together on the rooftop on January 30, 1969. On the 40th anniversary of this concert, which was just 6 weeks ago, Richard's tour was actually allowed to go to the rooftop, and CNN tagged along! That would have been cool to experience.

3 Savile Row

Our last stop before getting on the tube was the art gallery (which used to be the Indica Gallery) where John Lennon met Yoko Ono, who was presenting an art show there.

Where John & Yoko met; Carnaby Street

We then took the tube up to St Johns Wood, which is a really lovely residential area just north of Marylebone and Northwest of Regents Park. A few blocks from the station is Abbey Road, where Abbey Road studios is located, and where you'll find the road crossing made famous on the cover of the Abbey Road album. The road is actually fairly busy with traffic, so getting a clear shot of the crossing isn't easy. There is also a webcam that shows you the crossing 24/7.

Abbey Road Studios; The famous road crossing

Here we are in front of the Abbey Road sign (which is pretty small here--it's the one on the left)

Dad, Mom, Sis Pale>>Beige>>Tan

We really enjoyed the tour and were very glad we went. I would recommend it to anyone!

To see more pictures from the family visit and the Beatles tour, go here.