Apple moves into its new headquarters at 3 Savile Row, London

In May 1968, The Beatles acquired a five-storey property at 3 Savile Row, London. Apple Corps began relocating from its office at 95 Wigmore Street to Savile Row on this day. However, some operations remained at Wigmore Street until the lease expired.

3 Savile Row became Apple’s headquarters until 1972 and continued to serve as a recording studio until May 1975. In October 1976, The Beatles sold the property.

In July, Apple moved to No. 3 Savile Row. It was a big building. The record division was on the ground floor and the studio was in the basement. On the first floor there was a room for me and each of The Beatles. The next floor up from me was the press office, and after that I can’t remember.It might have been exciting for everybody else, and for people that came in from the outside, butfor me it was hard work setting it up and there was alwaysa lot of chaos.

Neil Aspinall – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

Each executive was given his own spacious office and allowed to decorate it. On the first floor, just off the glittering mirrored reception foyer, Ron Kass had a gleaming white office with a white desk and liquor cabinet and white leather Wassily chairs. On the second floor, up a flight of apple-green carpeted steps, was a large office for the Beatles and Neil, overlooking Savile Row. This office was never completely decorated, for as was the Beatles’ wont, they changed their minds so many times about what it should look like they never made any progress. I remember that only a short time after wall-to-wall carpeting was installed, they had it pulled up and the wood-plank floors polished. On the third floor was the press office, now presided over by Derek Taylor. My own office was across from the Beatles, on the second floor rear. It was a huge rectangular office with elaborate, handsome moldings around the ceiling. In lieu of a chandelier, Ringo had given me a huge lighting fixture of chrome headlights, designed by a firm he had invested in. At one end was a marble fireplace and four comfortable armchairs, and at the far side of the room there was a large, octagonal rosewood table. It was around this table that the dissolution of the Beatles would occur, as well as hundreds of other unhappy meetings over the next two years. On the higher floors were the A&R offices, a film department, accounting offices, music publishing, a film library, and an office for office management, headed by ever-loyal Alistair Taylor. In the deep basement Magic Alex set to work with a construction crew to build the Beatles’ own private studios, complete with, he promised, 78-track recording.

Peter Brown – From “The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles“, 2002

The building was in need of substantial refurbishment, but members of Apple’s staff started moving in as early as 15 July. For the next two months, workmen swarmed in and around 3 Savile Row, turning the somewhat run-down townhouse into a stately space suitable for a company that was positioning itself to revolutionize the entertainment industry. In addition to reconditioning the facade, the building’s interior was painted a cream color and the floors were covered in thick apple-green carpet.

Though primarily intended to be Apple’s corporate headquarters, the four Beatles also envisaged their new building as being something along the lines of their personal London clubhouse. To cater to their whims and the soon-to-be-frequent business lunches, Apple hired several young chefs to man the small kitchen on the third floor. In keeping with Apple’s utopian spirit, the Beatles decreed that even Apple’s junior staff would be allowed to order lunch from the kitchen.

From “Those Were The Days 2.0: The Beatles And Apple“, by Stefan Granados, 2021

I went over to Savile Row one morning and never returned to Wigmore Street. We sat on a plank, my secretary and I, and old pal Richard came over and we set up shop and prepared for the premiere of the movie Yellow Submarine which meant really that we hired some fancy clothes and resisted requests for interviews and carried out other little tasks.

Derek Taylor – From “As Time Goes By” by Derek Taylor, 2018

APPLE MOVES

London headquarters of Apple Corps Ltd. arc being moved to Mayfair where the Beatles have taken over five floors of luxurious office space at 3, Savile Row, London W.l, premises formerly owned by impresario Jack Hylton and said to be worth half a million pounds!

The basement of the building has been converted into a magnificently furnished recording studio. Apple Records will occupy the ground floor offices and the Beatles will have their own rooms on the first floor.

From the Beatles Monthly Book, N°60, July 1968

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