Iconic Abbey Road street sign for sale

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' Abbey Road album, which transformed the quiet, residential street into a mecca for music fans after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Star and George Harrison posed for the cover photograph walking over the crossing.

To coincide with the anniversary, Westminster Council is selling the disused sign on eBay to raise money for transport projects across the city.

The sale follows the council's successful eBay auction of 30 West End street signs including Leicester Square, Strand and Shaftesbury Avenue in July, which raised more than £18,000 for street improvements.

A further 42 of these West End signs including one for Covent Garden and others for Drury Lane and Bow Street will also go on sale in this new auction.

Cllr Danny Chalkley, cabinet member for city management, said: "This is a rare opportunity for someone to own a precious piece of Beatles memorabilia and Westminster history."

The street signs will be available on eBay from noon today in a seven-day auction which closes next Tuesday.

The Abbey Road sign has a reserve price of £1,000 while the other signs start from £100 or £50.

Many of the signs, which are often featured on postcards and tshirts, are expected to become sought-after collectors' items and it is hoped the auction will raise up to £20,000 for the council to plough back into transport projects and street improvements in Westminster.

The West End signs have all been up for more than ten years and are being replaced with a new design to create a more distinct character for the Theatreland district.

All the signs feature Westminster's traditional black and red capital lettering, which was first created by acclaimed designer Sir Misha Black in 1967 and is universally acknowledged as a design classic.

The font, a sans serif typeface, is unique to Westminster's street signs and is not available anywhere else in the world.

Other organisations are forbidden by copyright law to reproduce Westminster street signs, making them even more highly prized due to their rarity.

The old West End signs include a black band at the top with an inset picture of two traditional Pierrot-type clowns, while the new signs have a bright red band above the lettering and show an image of a comedy tragedy mask, synonymous with the stage.

To bid for one of the signs visit www.ebay.co.uk and search for "Authentic Westminster street sign".