20 Manchester Square London: EMI and The Beatles

20 Manchester Square in London was the location of the EMI Building, which was home to The Beatles' record label. It is one specific address within Manchester Square, the small 18th-century garden square in Marylebone, central London—not the name of the square as a whole.

What is 20 Manchester Square in London?

20 Manchester Square was the location of the EMI Building and is documented in connection with the company that became The Beatles' record label. The address sits within a small Georgian square predominantly designed in the 1770s, with construction beginning around 1776.

Manchester Square itself is an 18th-century garden square in Marylebone. The wider square provides the setting, but the Beatles-related significance belongs specifically to the EMI Building at number 20. The distinction matters if you are using the address to locate this particular piece of music history.

Why is 20 Manchester Square associated with The Beatles?

20 Manchester Square is associated with The Beatles because the EMI Building was home to their record label. The Beatles signed with EMI in 1961 through their manager, Brian Epstein, after the band's Liverpool beginnings and their intensive period of performances in Hamburg.

Their first album, Please, Please Me, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios. The album belongs to the period of rapid rise that followed the band's early work and the signing with EMI, when The Beatles moved into a level of fame associated with the EMI Building and the mania around the group.

The address is also linked to a specific Beatles image. On 16 February 1963, Welsh photographer Angus McBean took an album-cover photograph of the band. The Beatles recreated the image in 1969 for Let It Be, although the recreated version was not ultimately used on that album's cover. The London Beatlemania route visits 20 Manchester Square as stop 5 of 9.

What surrounds 20 Manchester Square?

Manchester Square is centred 950 feet (290 m) north of Oxford Street. Its internal dimensions are 300 feet (91 m) from north to south and 280 feet (85 m) across, giving number 20 a precise setting within a compact Georgian plan.

The north side has Hertford House at its centre, flanked by approach ways. The mansion was first called Manchester House and has housed the Wallace Collection of fine and decorative arts since 1897. Many buildings around Manchester Square have statutory protection as listed buildings, adding to the documented architectural character of the address's surroundings.

To understand 20 Manchester Square, keep the scale clear: Manchester Square is the 18th-century garden square in Marylebone, while number 20 identifies the location of the EMI Building and its specific connection with The Beatles.