Friday, May 27th —London.
My journal entry for this day (from a notebook I was carrying) consists mostly of a long list of places that we saw as we walked through London with the help of Leland and his “Beatles Walking Tour” book. Of course, along the way, we saw many non-Beatle-related London-ey things as well. (This book had the details though: “here’s the Gentelmen’s toilets that Lennon posed in front of to promote the so-and-so TV appearance he did for Peter Cook’s TV special” and such.)
John leaps down to the loo in Broadwick Street.
another John...copying our idea!
It’s a testament to how many miles we walked and how tired we were that I only had the energy at the end of the day to make a list. The weather forecast called, as was usual for our London stay, a goodly chance of rain. The threatened rain, since this was our day set aside to be ‘tourists’, thankfully never came.
Here’s that list:
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Radha Krishna Temple
The Beatles gave the Krishnas a lot of support to set up in London.
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M.P.L.–Soho Square (McCartney’s business offices )
[reportedly has an exact duplicate of the Abbey Road Studio #2 in the basement...We should all have one of those.]
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Trident Studios
”Hey Jude” and “Dear Prudence” are among the handful of White Album-era songs recorded here. [They had an 8-track recorder a little sooner than EMI.] George Harrison recorded his first post-Beatles album, the triple-set “All Things Must Pass” at Trident. Also many of the other artists on Apple Records were recorded here. Many other noted artists recorded here in the early 70′s, including Free, Genesis, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones…for more on Trident Studios…go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_Studios.)
mmmm. sandwhich break.
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The Toilets in Broadwick Street (see pics above)
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Carnaby Street
Once a place where the pop stars shopped in the ‘swinin’ 60′s’, it’s now mostly chain stores of the ‘Banana Republic’ sort.
Although this is just the sort of place that I would like to find on Carnaby St., I must admit, it's just me being a 'certain type' of tourist. They charged accordingly. Cool stuff though.
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The London Palladium
Ringo felt that if they ever played the Palladium, they would’ve really ‘made it’. They played here in ’63.
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Brian Epstein’s offices
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former “Bag o’ Nails” club
late night McCartney hang out (He met first-wife Linda Eastman here.) Also site of early Jimi Hendrix Experience gig.
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3 Saville Row
#3 Saville Row--the former Apple Records offices.
Apple Records office where the Beatles performed on the rooftop.
The famous rooftop of the famous Apple Records where they played their famous songs...
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Prince of Wales Theater
(Beatle’s Royal Command Performance in ’63)
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Marlyebone Rail Station and the alley adjoining
(scenes from Hard Day’s Night filmed here, including the chase scenes at the beginning.)
Here's the alley. Cue film music...
Abbey Road EMI Studios (and the famous crosswalk outside)
another shot of the Abbey Road crossing...I hadn'd realized it was so close to the EMI Abbey Road studios...but that's them all in blue scaffolding.
We took a bus home. Check 'ride a double-decker bus' off the tourist check list.