Recently there were celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the taking of the famous photo on the Beatles' 1969 album, Abbey Road. The ABC reports that hundreds of fans recently descended on the famous recording studio in north-west London (it's just a stone's throw from Lord's Cricket Ground).

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/09/2650256.htm 

That 12-volt VW Beetle in the background became part of the 'Paul is Dead' rumour of the time (along with his bare feet, being out of step, cigarette, costumes etc). The Beetle's number plate, if you look closely, is 28-IF-LMW. This was supposed to mean that Paul would have been 28 IF he was still alive, and that Linda McCartney Weeps.

Many VW magazines have reported that John Lennon owned the white Beetle - wrong. John Lennon actually owned a wildly painted Rolls Royce. No, the Beetle was actually just a normal car, owned by someone who lived in the nearby flats. It just happened to be parked in the street there when the famous photo was taken. The number plates were repeatedly stolen in the months after the album was released. The VW survived the 1970s and came up for auction in 1986 (Safer VW Motoring UK magazine reported on it at the time). Today it can be seen in the VW Museum at Wolfsburg, with its famous 28-IF-LMW plates.

More recently, Volkswagen has made their own version of the famous Abbey Road photo.

cool pic!

I saw the white album played by four of australia's best rock stars last night.
they played it cover to cover and it was the next best thing to seeing the actual Beatles.
I recomend going to see it if you have the chance.

I was there on the 20th of June 09

If you aint been there the actual studio is the white fence on the left hand side just past the crossing

Its really funny cars n taxis just pull up in the street people jump out take a few pics the Off again

we sat n watched fora 30 or 40 minutes or so and did some grafittie on the studio front fence

Volkswagen actually claims that John Lennon owned this Beetle.

This is a direct quote from the Zeithaus Autostadt program which profiles each car on display, "Starting in 1962 John Lennon and Paul McCartney conquered the world with the music of the Beatles. They unleashed enthusiasm that continues unabated to this day. In 1967, John Lennon ordered this 1300 Beetle, license number LMW 281F and used it for daily transportation. In 1969 this particular Beetle became world famous when it appeared on the cover of the Abbey Road album and gave rise to months of rumours of Paul McCartney's death because of the license number 28IF. It was acquired by VW at an auction in the summer of 1999."

Here's a pic of the car as it sits today in Autostadt.

I think Volkswagen is wrong on this one.

This is a newspaper cutting from May 1986, as published by VW Motoring magaine in their July 1986 issue. It reports on Beatles enthusiast Peter Gent buying the car from a used car dealer for just £450. It doesn't mention John Lennon owning the car; the only Beatles connection mentioned is the thing with the Paul Is Dead rumour. If John HAD owned this car, it would have been worth FAR more than just £450, only 5 years after his death.

The car is definitely a '68, going from the bumpers, so if 'John ordered the car in 1967' it must have been after August 1967, when VW introduced the '68 model in Europe. I think VW's museum has just made a John Lennon ownership assumption, and based the timing on the car's chassis number. Why John? Probably because he's first in line on the crossing, and he's wearing white, same colour as the Beetle. I'm also wondering why they would hang the Yellow Submarine poster on the wall behind - the Beetle was on Abbey Road. And who is the guy in the hat? Ah, ze funny Chermans!

It's not unheard of for the museum to make mistakes like this - the Herbie '53' Love Bug on display at Wolfsburg, for example, is the wrong year model.

Also, this page gives some information on John's yellow Rolls Royce, which is now on display in a museum in Canada:

http://beatles.ncf.ca/rolls.html 

Of course it doesn't mention that John ever owned a VW, but I suppose a Rolls enthusiast club wouldn't admit it anyway.