Beatles fans looking for a famous zebra crossing need to go to Abbey Road in St John’s Wood near Regents Park, but many accidentally end up at Abbey Road DLR station in east London by mistake.
So many do so that there’s even a cleverly written sign telling people how to get to the correct Abbey Road. Originally a simple poster, it’s now a proper permanent enamel sign.
(c) ianVisits
The text reads:
|
Day tripper looking for the Beatles zebra crossing? Feel like you’ve been here there and everywhere and on a magical mystery tour? Then don’t pass me by. Unfortunately you are at the wrong Abbey Road. However we can work it out and help you get back to the correct location. So let’s come together and take the DLR one stop to West Ham and change to a Jubilee line train to St John’s Wood station. Passengers will need a ticket to ride. |
The question is, how many Beatles fans accidentally end up at Abbey Road DLR station and then catch a ride to St John’s Wood to get to the correct Abbey Road?
Thanks to a Freedom of Information request, you can now be told how many journeys using an Oyster card went from Abbey Road DLR to St John’s Wood tube station over the past few years.
| Year | Journeys |
| 2021 | 682 |
| 2022 | 876 |
| 2023 (up to 8th October 2023) | 853 |
Now, that’s just Oyster and not contactless, and there’s no absolute proof that every one of those trips was by a mislocated Beatles fan looking for a zebra crossing.
But there’s a pretty good chance that most of them are.
There’s a more serious aspect to this, as over a thousand people will likely have ended up at the wrong place this year.
So, when people moan about silly signs on public transport because “hardly anyone is affected”, while the number of people affected might be a microscopic percentage of the passengers on public transport, in a city as large as London, that microscopically small percentage is still thousands of people.
(c) ianVisits
They missed one;
However we can work it out and help You Get BACK to the correct location.
No they didn’t
Read the article / look at the sign again
Get back wasn’t highlighted
It’s also well within the rounding error of 3 people making a daily commute between the two stations. If I get time I’ll try and find/submit an FOI for journeys going the other way.
Please
I made this mistake when visiting London in 2017
Delectable! I might become a Day Tripper on the DLR just to see this sign. Thanks, Ian.
Now we need to do the same for anyone going from Hayes (Kent) to Hayes & Harlington, or vice versa.
It’s happened twice that I know of! (And very funny).
I could not find Abbey Road on the tube, so I decided to Drive My Car, but I Should Have Known Better.
If the traffics bad you’ll get Nowhere Man
During the Olympics when I was helping out at Stratford I did interrupt a senior Jubilee line manager before he sent some tourists the the wrong Abbey Road!
This is bad statistics. To have any confidence that those journeys are lost people you’d need to see them tapping out shortly before tapping back in. Or given that sign or similar has been there for ages good need to monitor the people that got off the train, read the sign and got back on a train.
There is a video on Youtube of at least one American family making this mistake. I realised they had made the mistake when they headed east towards Stratford on the Central Line.