Paralympic Flame arrives in London (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)
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Paralympic Flame arrives in London
12:03pm Wednesday 29th August 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013
Five Paralympic torchbearers recreated The Beatles' famous zebra crossing pose at Abbey Road
The Paralympic Flame has arrived in London ahead of the opening ceremony.
After an overnight relay from Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire - the spiritual home of the Paralympic Games - the flame reached the Shree Swaminarayan Hindu temple in Willesden, Brent, amid cheers and traditional prayers.
From there it set off on its journey through six host boroughs in the capital on its way to the Olympic Stadium.
Hundreds of people waved Union flags and drums played uplifting rhythms in the morning sunshine as Antony Eames, 32, from Wokingham, held out a torch on a red carpet at the top of the temple's staircase.
Although the relay was about two hours behind schedule when the torch was lit from a miner's lamp just before 8.30am, organisers said they hoped to claw back the delay.
The torch later made a stop off to visit Abbey Road in St John's Wood, north-west London. Five torchbearers took the flame across the zebra crossing and recreated The Beatles' famous pose for the cover of their 1969 album Abbey Road.
Crowds lined the street, cheered and waved Union flags as Graham Helm, 38, from Lancashire, paraded the flame back across the Fab Four landmark on his own before walking it up the road. Mr Helm, registered blind four years ago, was nominated as a torchbearer for his work with young people.
Ria Amiraly, a special needs teacher from St John's Wood, said the atmosphere at the relay had been "buzzing". The 28-year-old said: "You don't get to see people talking every day to each other like they did today, it was fascinating to be part of it.
"The Paralympics are more important to me because I work with special needs children, I think it's great that people with disabilities are going out there and taking part in sport, it's really important," she added.
On Tuesday night, four individual flames representing the four home nations were carried into the stadium at Stoke Mandeville, and one combined torch was carried out, a beacon of the Paralympic spirit.
