West Malling: Magical Mystery Tour Plaque and Airfield

The Beatles filmed much of Magical Mystery Tour at the disused RAF West Malling airfield in Kent during the week of 19 September 1967. The opening ticket scene was shot at the newsagent at 90 High Street, West Malling, now the Rain Grill takeaway, where a blue plaque went up in 2015. It is the only Beatles marker in the area.

Why the Beatles ended up at an old air base

After the coach trip to Devon and Cornwall, the Beatles needed indoor space fast. Shepperton, Twickenham and the other London film studios could not be booked at short notice, so NEMS Enterprises hired the disused air station at West Malling for the week starting 19 September 1967. The group spent about six days there.

What was filmed in the hangars and on the runway

The hangars held the interiors: the magicians' laboratory, Aunt Jessie's dream and the sequence for George Harrison's Blue Jay Way. A hut outside the main hangar became the recruiting office where Paul McCartney played Major McCartney and Victor Spinetti shouted at the passengers.

Outside, the marathon race ran along the main runway and perimeter road. I Am the Walrus was mimed at two spots on the airfield, one of them on top of tall concrete anti-blast walls with four actors dressed as policemen. On Sunday 24 September a ballroom set went up in the largest hangar for the Your Mother Should Know finale. The Beatles wore white suits and were joined by 160 dancers from Peggy Spencer's formation team and 24 cadets from the local Women's Royal Air Force unit.

The newsagent on the High Street

On 22 September the crew moved into the town. Ringo Starr was filmed walking into the Town Newsagency at 90 High Street and buying tour tickets from John Lennon, who plays the man behind the counter. Harrison was in bed with flu that day. The scene opens the finished film, which BBC1 first showed in black and white on 26 December 1967.

The shop is now the Rain Grill takeaway. On 23 November 2015 the culture minister Tracey Crouch unveiled a blue plaque on the front, one of six put up that week by the West Malling Blue Plaques group with the borough council. It carries a QR code that links to the story in 12 languages.

Kings Hill today

RAF West Malling closed in 1969, and the airfield has since been built over as Kings Hill, about 2.5 km south of the town, with housing, offices, schools and a golf course. The restored control tower (now a cafe) and the former officers' mess survive from the air base. The hangars do not. A local writer who walked the estate in 2019 found the blast walls from I Am the Walrus demolished and put the spot near the roundabout of Beacon Avenue and Glenton Avenue, with the North Downs still visible behind. That location is approximate, and there is no sign or marker for the Beatles anywhere at Kings Hill.

The earlier part of the shoot, based at a hotel in Cornwall, is covered on the Atlantic Hotel, Newquay page. Another Kent location, where the Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane films were shot eight months earlier, is Knole Park in Sevenoaks.