Residents living near the Abbey Road crossing made famous by an iconic Beatles album cover are calling for speed controls to slow down drivers.

A Deliveroo driver was hit by a courier van at the crossing within minutes of the Local Democracy Reporting Service arriving to film the story.

It comes less than a week after another delivery driver was hit at the crossing.

The calls for public safety improvements come as the album's half-century anniversary approaches. Abbey Road was released 49 years ago next week (September 26).

Both locals and Abbey Road Studios say its time local authorities tackled the safety issues at the zebra crossing.

Tourists waiting to photograph themselves recreate the Fab Four's walk across the road gasped in shock as they heard a loud "bang" and saw a delivery rider fall from his moped at about 3pm Wednesday (September 19).

The driver of the van leapt out and shouted at tourists to be careful crossing the road as he stopped to check on the rider's welfare, who appeared unhurt and later continued on his rounds.

The second collision in a week on the crossing comes as residents around the St John's Wood tourist spot, outside Abbey Road Studios, lobby Westminster City Council to consider warning signs, detours, or lowering speeds to 20mph.

Speaking after the prang, which left a dent in his van's bumper, an irate Jean-Luc Gallet said he drives through the crossing several times a week and is constantly worried he would hit someone.

"As you can see it's ram-jam with people taking ridiculous pictures of a bloody zebra crossing. I understand the idea of it because it's got to do with the Beatles, everyone loves that whole factor.

"But when there's the amount of traffic that's up and down here on a day-to-day basis... someone's going to get hurt."

After the incident, he said: "It could have ended far worse. He's lucky he didn't actually get hurt."

Mr Gallet is unimpressed by tourists' behaviour at the crossing: "Far as I'm concerned being a British person and a Londoner: it's bang out of order."

However he also wanted to see safety measures put in place because tourists "bowl out" into the road.

"Hundred per cent they should have it cornered off for people who want to take pictures."

Local resident John Burns saw the whole incident unfold. He is among residents who want to see measures like detours, warning signs or signalling systems in place to warn drivers of tourists crossing.

"What we're worried about is people actually being hurt. We have no problem - we actually like people walking across the crossing and people around here, but we think the council should be more responsible in actually diverting traffic away from the crossing and actually lowering the speed limit."

The issue arose at a meeting between locals, councillors and police just last week (September 13), the same day another delivery driver was hit and seriously injured by a truck at the site of the musical landmark.

Courier van driver Jean-Luc Gallet says the way tourists behave at the crossing "bang out of order"

Abbey Road Studios managing director, Isabel Garvey, backed the residents.

"We support the new proposals to introduce a lower speed limit and any other traffic signals that will help the safety of visiting fans and tourists," she said.

"Previously we worked hard in collaboration with Westminster City Council to secure approval to open our Abbey Road Studios shop. It provides our fans a safe destination away from the crossing to visit and enjoy the legacy of this iconic site."

"We would be delighted to welcome new measures that would further enhance the safety to our fans but still allows them to experience the magic of Abbey Road."

In shots taken from a livestream of the crossing last week, people can be seen appearing to recreate the Beatles' pose while emergency services work in the background.

The photo of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr was taken in just 10 minutes

Westminster City Council cabinet member for environment and city management Cllr Tim Mitchell said a review of speeds at other spots around the borough was underway.

“We’re currently running a 12 month trial of 20mph speed limits at up to 40 schools and across two residential areas in Westminster, and this will be completed later this year.

"Once we’ve evaluated its results, we will then decide if, when and where these new speed limits could be rolled out.”

Fans are not treading the original crossing where their musical heroes were snapped striding across the road in 1969. It was moved from its original site in the 1980s, for traffic management reasons.

The Metropolitan Police have not responded for a request for comment including queries about the number of collisions at the crossing.