Tributes to the Beatles written by fans on the walls outside the Abbey Road Studios in London will only be on show for one week following an agreement between the owners of the studios and the local council.
Ever since John Lennon's death in 1980 the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded the vast majority of their music, have become something of a shrine, with a tradition of fans leaving graffiti tributes on the white washed walls outside the studios. But the tradition has become increasingly unpopular with local residents, so much so the local council has said it will re-white wash the walls on a weekly basis to keep the amount of graffiti on show at any one time to the absolute minimum. Previously the studio's owners would re-white wash the walls every couple of months.
The studios' MD, David Holly, confirming he had reached a deal with the local council regarding the graffiti, told reporters this week: "We have no objections to people writing on the wall. We rather like it. Some of our neighbours are not quite so keen. People can still leave their messages - it just does not stay up quite so long."
Local councillor Judith Harner is not so keen on the graffiti and is fully backing the move to keep it to the minimum. She told reporters: "One person's so-called tradition is somebody else's eyesore. Would you do that to the Vatican? People leave their names and 'we love John, Paul, George and Ringo' all over the Abbey Road signpost and it frequently gets stolen."