Abbey Road studio doors that swung open to welcome The Beatles and other stars for nearly 60 years up for auction at Ewbank’s.
Manager’s note reveals how security guards’ complaint about studio ghost may have been behind alterations in the 1960s
Abbey Road, the world’s most famous recording studios, are 90 years old this year. To celebrate, Ewbank’s Auctions will offer the original foyer doors for sale on February 25.
As the studio plan accompanying the lot shows, these were the main internal doors through which many of the leading names from every period of Rock & Pop, from The Beatles and Pink Floyd to Elton John and Michael Jackson, would have passed to reach the sound stages and recording studios.
Most famously, this was the setting for The Beatles’ 1960s recordings with the ‘fifth Beatle’, their producer George Martin. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – considered the most important album in the history of Rock and Pop – The White Album and Abbey Road were all created here. In fact, The Beatles recorded around 90 per cent of all their material at the studios between 1962 and 1970.
Complete with their original brass hinges, the doors would have first welcomed Sir Edward Elgar when he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and the teenage Yehudi Menuhin to crown the opening of the EMI Recording Studios in 1931.
The doors were used in place right up until 1988 when they were removed as part of a major refurbishment.
Letter of authenticity… and a ghostly tale
Recording engineer and former Abbey Road manager Ken Townsend was there from 1950 to 1995 and worked on several Beatles albums, including Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, inventing the Artificial Double Tracking (ADT) system that they were to use for phasing on Beatles records.
He has provided a letter of authenticity to go with the doors – confirming that anyone who recorded at the studios would have passed through them – and that is also included with the lot.
Also included is a note from Townsend explaining that at one point the doors were converted with glass panels for a very unusual reason:
“The glass panels are not original as they were changed in the sixties due to one of two reasons,” he writes. “The most likely was that they did not meet the standard required by the fire regulations, but the other was more improbable. As you know the night security staff who at the time were Smythe and Blyth complained that in the early hours the Abbey Road Ghost came down the corridor and the door would swing open and this white dressed lady would go past them. By replacing the old frosted glass gave them [sic] advance notice to make a hasty exit!”
Acquired by an EMI executive when the studios were revamped in 1988, they have remained in private ownership since.
They measure approximately 78 x 200 cm and the estimate is £2,000-4,000.
“It’s an honour to be able to offer this unique pair of doors as part of the 90th anniversary celebrations for the unsurpassed Abbey Road studios,” said Ewbank’s specialist Alastair McCrea. “The hands that have touched them over the years are the same hands that wrote and performed many of the best-loved Rock and Pop standards in history.”
The doors will be offered as part of Ewbank’s Entertainment, Memorabilia & Movie Props auction on February 25.
Live online bidding is available via Ewbank’s website, where you will also be able to view the entire catalogue.
• Ewbank’s Sports & Entertainment Memorabilia department is the company’s leading specialist department, with £1.6m in auction sales in 2020. Recent highlights include the Football Memorabilia of former Manchester United captain Norman Whiteside and the Bray Studios sale of Gerry Anderson memorabilia.
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