Star crossing

The zebra-striped pedestrian crossing outside the Abbey Road studios in the St. John's Wood district of London, most widely known from the photo on the cover of The Beatles' 1969 album "Abbey Road" and a pilgrims' destination among Beatles fans over the past four decades, has been designated by the British government as a heritage site, to be preserved permanently, Sam Jones reports in The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/22/beatles-abbey-road-listing

Preceding The Beatles on that road and into the studios were many of the leading classical musicians of the early and mid-20th century, among them Edward Elgar, Yehudi Menuhin, Artur Schnabel, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Thomas Beecham. John Barbirolli conducted the first recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony and Glenn Miller led his his last recording sessions, with singer Dinah Shore, at Abbey Road. Others working in the studios range from Noel Coward and Fats Waller to Pink Floyd and Radiohead.

The studio complex, built as a townhouse in the 1830s and converted to a recording venue in 1931, was declared a heritage site earlier in the year.