The police van on Abbey Road

The men in the police van identified

As our frequent visitors will know, we have had our suspicions about the late Paul Cole’s story of being the man who stands beside the police van on the cover of the “Abbey Road” album. Now, we have received a letter from one of the police officers, bringing us his side of the story.

Paul Cole came forward with the story in 2004, and it was also a news item when he passed away in 2008, as he was now known in the mainstream media as “the man on the Beatles album cover”. The reasons for us doubting his story, is that he claimed to have been in conversation with the guys in the police van for half an hour, before noticing the Beatles, whom he didn’t recognise, walking across the street, one of them not wearing any footwear. Here’s a link to his story, from 2004 – and an obituary from 2008.

However, that photo, which was used on the cover of the album was only the fifth of six photos photographer Iain Macmillan took at this photo session, and the “mystery man” appears in the first three of the four photos taken before the police van even arrived.

The six attempts to shoot the album cover front. Photo #5 was chosen.

Also, Cole was not the only man claiming to be the man on the Abbey Road, cover, he was last in a line of people. However, those earlier claims to being that man happened in the seventies, a time when such claims would have been published in small, amateur Beatles fanzines and read by the die-hard subscribers only. Paul Cole came forward in 2004, when the internet had arrived, making his story go viral.

Now, here’s the story of the police van, as given us by retired Inspector Ron Cromar.

In 1969 I was police constable 437 ‘D’ Division, attached to St. John’s Wood police station, situated at 20 1/2 Newcourt Street, NW8.

A large number of well known people lived on our ground, including Paul McCartney and his then wife, Linda. Their residence was a large house in a quiet street close to the recording studios in Abbey Road, The house was set back behind a waist high stone coping wall that enclosed a front garden on one side and a fairly wide footway on the other. Pretty much every day a group of about half a dozen young girls would congregate on the footway outside the house, presumably hoping for a glimpse of Paul. Sometimes the more forceful amongst them would climb over the wall and get into the front garden. When that happened, Linda would telephone the police station and say, “They’re in the garden again!” We would send somebody to eject and advise the girls. There was never any real trouble, just over enthusiasm and the girls were treated accordingly.

The Event

On the day in question I was on the early turn shift, being ready for briefing at 5.45am to start the shift proper at 6.0am. Most days there were four or five of us and we were usually briefed by our Relief Sergeant, Gerry Whitmee. That morning he appeared with a sheaf of documents, using them to give us our instructions for our various tasks that day. I recall that he made a bit of a joke about one item, asking whether we knew anything about a bunch of blokes who called themselves after some kind of insect. He riffled through his papers and came up with the name of ‘Beatles’. Grins all round and then he told us that they had arranged to have their photograph taken outside the recording studios in Abbey Road. He said that Police had been asked to be available during the photo session to prevent any disturbance or interference should those girls or other fans get wind of what was about to take place.

The Sergeant directed that my colleague, PC Alastair McCalman, should take the police van and be there at a certain time and park up where the location could be observed. He directed me to accompany Alastair. We complied, with Alastair parking the van at the side of Abbey Road, facing south, just before the row of metal studs that mark the area to be kept clear of the pedestrian crossing. Soon after we got there we saw a man with a pair of step ladders. He set them up where he was protected from traffic, just by the memorial and the then horse drinking trough situated at the junction of Abbey Road and Grove End Road.

Whilst we waited, I had the passenger side sliding door of the van open and a white man came up and asked what was about to happen. I noticed that he had a North American accent. I saw no reason not to tell him and let him know why we were there. We chatted for a little while, keeping watch and I remember Alastair being a bit disparaging about the Beatles.

Not long afterwards I saw the chap climb up onto the ladders, holding a camera and the four young men of the Beatles pop group appear on the right hand side of the road, outside the studios. They walked across the pedestrian crossing in single file, reached our side, then turned and went back to the studio side, then turned again and filed back once more to our side of the road. After that they walked back towards the studio and the chap with the ladders folded them and went away.

There being no further cause for any police action, Alastair started the van’s engine and we drove off to continue our shift. I thought no more about the whole episode until some time later when the photographs appeared.

Comments

I’ve seen a written suggestion that the photograph was taken on the spur of the moment. That is not the case because the police had correspondence about the event prior to it taking place;

The man standing by the police van definitely had a North American accent;

Photos of the scene with the police van not in position indicate to me that there must have been a dry run or an unsuccessful attempt to take the photograph prior to our arrival. The fact that the photograph eventually selected for use was the one when our van was present, seems to me that it is unlikely that those other pictures were taken after we had left;

Due to the time that has elapsed I do not remember the precise time we arrived in Abbey Road but it was during the morning and we had had our breakfast. We were on time according to our instructions;

I do not remember the day of the week but it was a weekday, not a weekend;

We were the only police presence at the event.

As an aside: I had married on the 25th July, and this event happened a few days after I had returned to work from our honeymoon. My wife remembers me telling her about seeing the Beatles.

In those days constables of the Metropolitan Police wore light blue shirts and, when the LP album appeared on sale, we bought a copy, principally to see if Alastair and I could be seen in that large coloured image. However, even after close inspection, only very vague light blue shapes can be seen behind the glare of the police van’s windscreen.

Ron Cromar. Insp. (Retd.)

Of course, the official date given is Friday, August 8, 1969. This is also confirmed in Mal Evans’ diary:

Mal Evans’ diary page for the day

Cromar’s description of the events from where he was sitting, is that three photos were taken while he was there. Still, the police van is only there in photos #5 and #6.

Photo 6 from a limited edition print.

His theory that the first three photos was from a “dry run” prior to the police arriving is contradicted by Paul Cole’s presence in the first three photos along with his story that he only noticed the four Beatles while he was having the conversation with the policemen in the van.

Cromar’s story also rules out the story about there being a policeman on the street, holding up the traffic while the Beatles were crossing the road.

This post is part of the all-encompassing article about the Abbey Road photo cover session, which you can find here.