Doors from iconic Abbey Road Studios sell at Surrey auction
They went for more than four times what was expected
A set of doors which were once part of London's Abbey Road studios have sold at auction in Surrey.
Legendary acts including The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Elton John all passed through them, before they were removed as part of the studio's major refurbishment in 1988.
Going under the hammer at Ewbank's in Send they fetched £17,500 – more than four times what was expected.
The original foyer doors were in place for almost 60 years, from when the site opened as the EMI Recording Studios in 1931.
They had been in possession of an EMI executive since the revamp and were estimated to go for between £2,000-4,000.
Ewbank’s specialist Alastair McCrea said: “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.
“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.”
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 provided a letter of authenticity to go with the doors – confirming that anyone who recorded at the studios would have passed through them .
Joining it was 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!”