Physical Graffiti Cover — St. Mark's Place, New York City

The cover of Led Zeppelin's 1975 double album "Physical Graffiti" features the facades of two identical six-storey tenement buildings at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in the East Village, Manhattan. Photographer Peter Corriston chose the buildings for their visual symmetry and the architectural detail of their windows, which he used to display cut-out figures and objects in different configurations on the front and back cover. The result is one of rock's most immediately recognisable album sleeves — a dense, playful collage of New York tenement life that suited the album's own dense, sprawling double-LP character.

"Physical Graffiti" was released on Led Zeppelin's own Swan Song Records label and remains one of the most celebrated albums in rock. Its fourteen tracks span hard rock ("Custard Pie," "The Wanton Song"), folk and Eastern influences ("Kashmir," "In the Light"), acoustic delicacy ("Bron-Yr-Aur"), and blues ("Boogie with Stu"), demonstrating the full range of the band's ambitions at a commercial and creative peak. "Kashmir" in particular — built on a hypnotic non-repeating guitar and orchestral pattern — is widely regarded as the band's greatest achievement.

The two tenement buildings at 96-98 St. Mark's Place still stand and are among the most photographed residential addresses in New York — a steady stream of Zeppelin fans appears at the doors daily for photographs recreating the album cover perspective. St. Mark's Place itself is one of the most historically rich streets in New York, associated with Beat culture, the 1960s counterculture, and the East Village arts scene across multiple decades.