/ David Pescovitz / 7:24 pm Mon May 7, 2012

Webcam at Abbey Road crossing

Abbeyroaddddd

Live Webcam of tourists and the drivers who hate them at the famed Abbey Road crossing. Abbey Road Studios - Crossing Webcam (via @chris_carter_)

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  1. Oh, I want to say this is 10 years old at least, no? I’m not dissing it, I’m just remembering it as one of the early livecams, perhaps reaching back into RealMedia or FTP’d images days?

      1. Abbey Road Cam is one of the five or six oldest cam sites on the WWW – the actual zebra crossing is nice and rightly famous, but when I’m in the area I tend to ignore the crossing and head the half a block to EMI-Abbey Road Studios (where the camera above is mounted) – not only The Beatles, but so many other British and international music acts made that plain white building their sonic home. Once in a while the insane Beatle-centric graffiti on EMI’s small outer wall is allowed to build up, but mostly it’s white-washed every few days or so

  3. I have missed seeing this everytime I have been on that road. So I have yet to see tourists right there on Abbey Road tempting fate among those English drivers.

    We take it when staying away from the congestion charge area.

    1. The black cabs and red buses have grown used to the minor delays at the crossing. It’s impatient commuters who lay on their horns as tourists cross.

  5. The crossing was actually fenced off for a while recently, with one lane closed off due to major roadworks in the area. Didn’t stop the gobshites. I spent hours one evening watching people having to leap out of the way of buses.

  7. for those who haven’t seen the hilarious facejacker:

    “Back in the UK Augustine is disguised as a lollipop lady at Abbey Road, helping tourists recreate the famous Beatles album cover by stopping traffic for a small fee.”

    starts at exactly 5 mins in

  8. in some places those who constantly walk back and forth to cause disruption in traffic would be arrested for hooliganism, or beaten up by anxious drivers… do note, that it isn’t tourists doing that, it is just pranksters happy about the boingboing post. 

  9. Watched for about 90 seconds and saw 4 different groups posing in the crosswalk.  There was almost a fifth, but they decided against getting run over.

    1. omg is it like this all the time??!! hah!

      Does anyone know the purpose of the zigzag lines? Is it to warn of the crosswalk?

      1. Drivers: It as an offence to park or wait within the area bounded by the extremes of the zig-zag markings — you may stop only to give way to pedestrians on the zebra crossing or in circumstances beyond your control. Within the zig-zag area, you must not overtake the moving motor vehicle nearest the crossing or the leading vehicle which has stopped to give way to a pedestrian on the crossing. 

        Pedestrians: You should always cross on the striped crossing — never on the zig-zag area.
          — Knowing Your Traffic Signs, The Department of Transport

        1. Huh, that sounds similar to our yellow curb/double yellow line thing here in the US. And they really grab your attention!

          I’ve worked and driven on a commuter/resident college campus for almost 14 years now.  I’ve been conditioned to never expect anyone to obey any pedestrian OR driver rules and regs, at ANY time. 

  11. what I don’t get, though is why do it after all this time? or more importantly why do it when it’s obvious that hundreds of people a day are doing it? Like the “holding up the tower of Pisa” photo it has to be obvious that there is nothing unique or clever about your photo, and therefore nothing interesting- except perhaps as evidence of how stunningly uninteresting you are.

  12. And here’s a great post about it, by Momus. http://mrstsk.tumblr.com/post/17586466159

  13. It’s quite incredible that you seem to be able to view it any time during the day and witness at least one near-accident within about 30 seconds of watching it.

    Although you could say the same about most roads in London…

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