Exhibition Chronicling History of Abbey Road Studios Opens in London

Visitors to London who hope to see the famous Abbey Road Studios usually have to make do with taking photos from the street or visiting the souvenir gift shop next door. But for the next few weeks, they can visit a free exhibition in the public library of the Barbican Arts Centre that chronicles Abbey Road’s history. Though predominantly a show of well-captioned snapshots from the 1970s from rock photographer Jill Furmanovsky, the exhibition also includes historic photographs of the studios’ earlier days, including shots of George Martin and the Beatles. Also on display is some early hardware, including a collection of historic mics such as the Neumann U47 and U48, both shown in their entirety and also broken down to show their condenser diaphragm capsules and original valves. Open reels of EMI tape are labeled with the claim that while many brands of analog master tape became “sticky” in storage, and needed baking for eight hours at low heat to render them playable, no EMI masters needed restorative treatment. The exhibition runs through June 27.