Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
The auction photo of the Beatles walking over the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing the 'wrong way'
The auction photo of the Beatles walking over the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing the 'wrong way'. Photograph: Bloomsbury Auctions
The auction photo of the Beatles walking over the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing the 'wrong way'. Photograph: Bloomsbury Auctions

'Backwards' Abbey Road Beatles photo up for auction

This article is more than 12 years old
Rare picture shows Fab Four walking over pedestrian crossing opposite way to image used on famous album cover

A rare photograph showing the Beatles walking the "wrong way" across the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing is expected to fetch up to £9,000 at auction.

The version that found its way on to the 1969 Abbey Road album has the band walking from the photographer's left to right.

In the version up for sale John Lennon, splendid in white suit and shoes, leads the group from right to left.

Other differences are likely to tantalise Beatles fans, particularly Paul McCartney's footwear. On the album he has bare feet, but in this shot he is wearing chunky sandals. The cigarette, which he holds on the album version, is either missing or hidden.

The photograph was one of just a handful taken outside the Abbey Road studios in St John's Wood, north-west London, during the rapid shoot by the late Iain Macmillan as a police officer held up the traffic. This print is one of 25 created and is being sold by a private collector.

Sarah Wheeler, of Bloomsbury Auctions, in London, said: "Macmillan had 10 minutes to do the shoot and he took six photographs of the Beatles walking backwards and forwards across the zebra crossing. He was standing up a ladder to take the pictures.

"The photo has been called an icon of the 1960s. I think the reason it became so popular is its simplicity. It's a very simple, stylised shot and is a shot people can relate to."

The auction takes place on 22 May.

Most viewed

Most viewed