Brian Epstein, the man famously labelled the "fifth Beatle", was honoured on Sunday with a Heritage Foundation blue plaque at the site of his former offices in London.

Mr Epstein signed the unknown band in 1961 and managed them at the height of Beatlemania. He died in 1967 at the age of 32.

Celebrities gathered on Sunday to witness the fixing of the plaque at the building in Argyll Street, off Oxford Circus.

Sir Paul McCartney sent a message paying tribute to his former manager: "Brian played a very important role in guiding the career of us Beatles.

"More than that he was a lovely man whose friendship we all valued and who I will always remember with great fondness," he wrote.