I seem to remember I ranted a bit last year about the tourists who come to see and walk across the zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios. Things are a lot worse down there today, because today is the fortieth anniversary of the release of Abbey Road and lots of happy smiling Beatles fans gathered in the street.
Now, I love the Beatles as much as the next man, but all those happy smiling fans seem to have no idea just how much disruption they cause. Abbey Road is...well, a road. It's not a Cathedral or a stately home, where you can dawdle around looking at stuff. And I'm tired of people who complain about it being described as `spoilsports' or somehow enemies of Civilisation because, hey, if you complain about it you can't be a Beatles fan, and if you're not a Beatles fan, well, we feel sorry for you.
We were sort of planning to go down to Marble Arch today, but we decided to knock it on the head. Abbey Road was impassible this morning and will probably remain crowded all day. Wellington Road, the main road that runs parallel to Abbey Road down to the roundabout at Lord's cricket ground, is closed both ways for roadworks so the traffic will be going down through West Hampstead, which is not the best place for traffic at the best of times. There was a big accident on the North Circular where it crosses Regent's Park Road and the Finchley Road earlier. Basically, it's a route better avoided. So, sod it. We've got people staying with us and Bogna's gone up to Hampstead with them while I do the washing and hoovering.
Anyway, to give you some idea what Abbey Road is like, the BBC reports here.