Business owners close to The Beatles' famed Abbey Road street crossing are urging London officials to change the name of a train station in the east of the city which has been confusing the band's fans.

Devotees of the Fab Four pour into the British capital from all over the world to get a glimpse of the iconic landmark featured on the cover of the band's 1969 album Abbey Road.

The crossing is in St. John's Wood, north-west London, but fans have been wrongly flocking to West Ham in the east of the city looking for the landmark after an overground train station called Abbey Road opened there last year.

The station is more than 10 miles from the famed crossing and business owners in St John's Wood are now complaining they are losing vital trade, urging bosses at Transport for London (TFL) to change the name.

Richard Porter, who runs The Beatles coffee shop in St John's Wood, tells local newspaper the Ham and High, "Abbey Road is one of the most iconic sites in London, so people at Transport for London must have known this was going to happen. You wouldn't name a station Buckingham Palace unless it was outside Buckingham Palace and this is costing us business. I think they should change the name of the station."

West Ham local Charlie Seber adds, "We get an incessant stream of tourists coming down looking for Abbey Road. Last week three Japanese people were walking up and down Abbey Road here and were stopping at any old crossing and taking photos. I asked them if they were looking for the zebra crossing in The Beatles album and they said yes and I told them they were on the wrong side of London." (LR/WNBTE/ZN)