The gift shop at the iconic Abbey Road recording studios wants to extend its opening hours - prompting fears that it would cause traffic disruption at the zebra crossing made famous by The Beatles.

But the concerns are likely to be over-ruled by Westminster planners.

Some residents want the council to let it be and refuse to extend the shop's opening hours.

According to a report for Tuesday's planning committee: “Concern has been expressed that the shop has increased footfall and traffic disruption in the area as a result of increased use of the zebra crossing. However, there is no evidence to demonstrate this.”

The zebra crossing featured on the cover of the Fab Four’s 1969 Abbey Road album. The pose of the four musicians crossing the road has been much copied by generations of Beatles fans.

The report prepared for Westminster’s planning committee said most visitors who take the long and winding road to get to the Abbey Road studios arrive by foot after getting off the Underground at St John’s Wood station or take the bus.

The famous photo of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on the crossing at Abbey Road

The studio said it had carried out a survey which found that the shop “draws approximately 80% of visitors away from the crossing, thereby reducing the extent to which many visitors loiter around the crossing when visiting” and felt there were “some improvements in terms of the degree to which the use of the crossing by visitors disrupts traffic on Abbey Road”.

The shop is already open from 9.30am to 7pm from Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 6pm on Sundays.

Visitors can stock up on gifts such as an I am the Walrus egg cup, Yellow Submarine Monopoly or a score of Yesterday.

It first opened in 2015 and the studios want to extend the hours so it can open at 9am and shut at 8pm on Mondays to Saturdays, which it believes will attract an extra 10,000 visitors a year - or 30-35 more a day.

The application is opposed by two residents and the St John’s Wood Society.

According to the report they are concerned about noise disturbance.

However the council said the proposed extra time at either end of the day was “considered to be modest”.

It said there have been no complaints to the council’s 24-hour noise team since the shop opened.

The report added that the “on-going issue” of graffiti outside the studio predates the shop’s opening and boundary walls are repainted every four weeks “to improve its appearance”.