Something Touristy: Downtown, Abbey Road Studios

Lool…as if Abbey Road Studios were actually downtown. I had to take the train and travel 2 tube lines. But it was so worth it!

If you’re a fan of rock and roll, scratch that… if you are a hardcore music lover, this studio should mean something to you, as countless Grammy award winners have recorded here.

There’s an encyclopedia of music names that have graced the studios from The Beatles, to Pink Floyd to U2 to Amy Winehouse to Adele, Coldplay, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Dido, Michael Buble, Kanye West, you name it!

But this studio is however mostly associated with the Beatles. They named their 1969 album Abbey Road, the year the studio got renamed Abbey Road Studios.

At 85 years old, the oldest recording studio stands tall, inaccessible to the public but holds such legend that tourists (500,000 a year) swarm every day taking pictures of the studios at the famous pedestrian crossing on Abbey Road.

The iconic photo of the Beatles walking across the pedestrian crossing has been recreated by countless tourists and music fans who check the place out. I just struck a pose, too excited to walk across.

There’s a souvenir shop just beside the studios filled with keepsakes too bounteous to singly acquire!

From photographs to key holders, umbrellas, notebooks, mugs, fridge magnets, mouse pads, jewelry, oyster card jackets, Inside Abbey Studio books, postcards of vintage microphones, I had a good think before I picked my booty!

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There were pocket synthesizers for sale and on display for sampling, to create spunky techno riffs.

The shop was also filled with so much history, going chronologically as seen on the walls above, as well as in pictures inside the shop.

There were also books for sale on music, the history of music and music icons, as well as photography.

I had so much fun and felt so at home that I went twice. I’d still love to go again, and this time, right into the studios proper. Thankfully, I can, with Google partnering with Abbey Road Studios to create an app that takes me right to where the most innovative records were created.