Ninety years ago, on November 12 1931, 74-year-old Sir Edward Elgar stepped onto the conductor’s podium in a new recording studio located on a residential street in north London. Addressing the London Symphony Orchestra before him, Sir Edward said, “Good morning, gentlemen. A very light programme this morning. Please play this tune as if you’ve never heard it before.”

He raised his baton and, in front of an audience that included George Bernard Shaw, the orchestra played Land of Hope and Glory. It was recorded, and the session was filmed by Pathé (in what now is a rare surviving audio film of Elgar). The studio was Abbey Road. And Elgar, who died a little over two years later, was a fitting choice for its debut recording: he had been an advocate of gramophone records for many years.

Abbey Road went on to become the most famous recording studio in the world. Three decades after Elgar kicked things off, the Beatles would cement its legendary status by recording classic songs from Help! and Lady Madonna to Paperback Writer and The Fool on the Hill. 

But less well known about Abbey Road is what happened in the years leading up to its grand opening. Prior to its conversion to a recording studio, the nine-bedroom house at 3 Abbey Road was linked to criminal activity, political sleaze and – some have suggested – murder. Some even claim that a ghost roams the studio’s corridors as a result. 

The three-studio complex was opened in 1931 by the newly formed Electric and Musical Industries – or EMI – following the merger of two record companies, The Gramophone Company and Columbia. The move had been necessitated by the march of technology: the introduction of the microphone into the recording process in 1925 had rendered The Gramophone Company’s existing recording facilities inadequate. They hunted high and low for suitable premises, and alighted on a spacious house with a large garden on Abbey Road, which they bought in 1929 for £16,500, just prior to the merger.