Beatles in Twickenham Exhibition Open to the Public

A free Beatles in Twickenham Exhibition has opened at the arts and community centre, The Exchange.

The exhibition will run from May 2nd to August 16th 2019. The Exchange is operated by St Mary’s University, Twickenham.     

Since the plans for the Exhibition were announced in November, local residents and fans have sent in their photographs, memorabilia, and shared their memories of The Beatles filming in the Twickenham area.

The Beatles in Twickenham is a project developed by The Exchange and St Mary’s University, supported by Richmond Borough Council’s Civic Pride Fund and Twickenham Studios. The project focuses on and celebrates a unique period in the 1960’s when ‘Swinging’ London was at the heart of the pop, film, art and fashion worlds, and the Twickenham area developed a long association with the most famous pop group in the world.

The project has been timed to mark the 50th anniversaries of both the historic Hey Jude TV broadcast and the subsequent Let It Be sessions in January 1969, both filmed at Twickenham Studios. Before this The Beatles had already formed a strong connection with the area, making a number of their ground-breaking feature and promotional films in part at least, at the St Margaret’s-based studios. Famous filming locations included a key sequence in Help! filmed on Ailsa Avenue, and Ringo’s famous pub scene in A Hard Day’s Night filmed in the Turks Head on Winchester Road.

Stuart Hobday, Creative Director of The Exchange, said: “We’re delighted to have the exhibition open and underway. We weren’t sure what response we would have as The Beatles history and association with Twickenham is relatively undocumented.

“However, we have been delighted with the amazing photographs, memorabilia and memories that local residents and fans have shared with us and very kindly donated for the exhibition.

“Some of the photographs have rarely been seen and we have even had a rare Beatles acetate recording loaned to us from a local resident, whose father worked as a sound engineer at Twickenham Film Studio’s on the ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Help’ films”. A photograph of the local resident with the acetate is featured at the exhibition. 

There are five accompanying Beatles related events at The Exchange including a showing the ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ film on May 7th and a talk with Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn on May 17th.