Beatles 'backwards' Abbey Road photo sells for £16,000

A photograph of the Beatles walking "backwards" across Abbey Roadhas sold for £16,000 at auction, several thousand pounds more than expected. The photo was taken by the late Iain Macmillan, during the same shoot that resulted in the Fab Four's famous album cover.

An unnamed buyer won the auction following a "frenzied bidding session" at Bloomsbury Auctions in London, Spinner reported. The rare item, one of six photos taken for Macmillan's shoot, reached almost twice the expected purchase price of £9,000.

Besides the direction of the Beatles' transit – and the purchase price – there's not much distinguishing the auctioned photograph from the official Abbey Road cover. But whereas Paul McCartney is barefoot on the LP cover, he wears sandals in this photograph. It is unknown what happened to his footwear in between.

Macmillan took the photos in just 10 minutes, standing on a ladder by the Abbey Road zebra crossing. Police were hired to stop traffic. "I think the reason [the photo] became so popular is its simplicity," Bloomsbury's Sarah Wheeler said last week. "It's a very simple, stylised shot, which people can relate to."

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