Tube service is suspended: Swinging up to 12 metres above the floor of Westminster Tube station, here are some of London's most adventurous cleaners in action. The team of abseiling workers will be spending 10 weeks suspended from the ceiling, or clambering high up in the station's superstructure, for one of the capital's hardest hygiene jobs. They will be secured by ropes and harnesses as they clean pipes, polish the sides of escalators and dust off the nets that hang between staircases. Balancing act: the Jeweltone cleaners get to work on the cavernous interiors of Westminster Tube station, where they will work from 1am-5am for 10 weeks. They also clean the other 10 stations on the Jubilee line extension. “It would be dangerous for you or I to attempt it, but the team are all qualified and work to the highest safety standards.” The abseilers work in all 11 stations on the 10-year-old Jubilee line extension, from Westminster to Stratford, because of their awkward design. The team are from Jeweltone, whose previous projects include cleaning the outside of Barclays Bank's 156m-tall Canary Wharf headquarters, and the outside of Canary Wharf station. He added: “Sometimes we get cleaners who want to do abseiling so we send them away for training, or we get people who love abseiling calling us up looking for work and we show them what they need to do.” 
Senior technician Brian Titman, 41, started out as a window cleaner but trained in “abseil-cleaning” 21 years ago. It now pays up to £36,000 a year. He said the “extreme” nature of the job kept him feeling young. “I've never been afraid of heights, just falling from great heights,” he said. “A lot of days I go home and my whole body is aching, and in Westminster it gets very hot, so I'm sure I've lost a few pounds.” Mr Titman, from Ipswich, has cleaned numerous tall buildings in the capital including the Gherkin. “Because our job starts at the top of buildings and works down, the aerial views you get over London are absolutely breathtaking,” he said. More pictures of jobs undertaken by this company - click the pictures to enlarge.
Senior technician Brian Titman, 41, started out as a window cleaner but trained in “abseil-cleaning” 21 years ago. It now pays up to £36,000 a year. He said the “extreme” nature of the job kept him feeling young. “I've never been afraid of heights, just falling from great heights,” he said. “A lot of days I go home and my whole body is aching, and in Westminster it gets very hot, so I'm sure I've lost a few pounds.” Mr Titman, from Ipswich, has cleaned numerous tall buildings in the capital including the Gherkin. “Because our job starts at the top of buildings and works down, the aerial views you get over London are absolutely breathtaking,” he said. More pictures of jobs undertaken by this company - click the pictures to enlarge.
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