Tuesday 16 April 2013

Monument To Window Cleaners


Monument to Window Cleaners - "The Window Cleaner" - Urban Art: A Sculpture by Allan Sly: This statue depicting a window cleaner with his A frame ladders stands outside Edgware Road underground station on Chapel Street, London W1 & looks up to the array of windows in Capital House who commissioned the sculpture.


About the Sculptor: Allan Sly. Born in Windsor, Berkshire, U.K. in 1951. Studied Sculpture at the City & Guilds of London Art School from 1971 - 74, followed by postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Art, London, from 1974 - 77. Awards include: The Beckwith Scholarship, British Institution Award, the Royal Academy of Arts Silver and Bronze medals for sculpture and the Elizabeth T Greenshields Memorial Foundation Award for figurative sculpture. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1992 and is presently Senior Lecturer at Wimbledon College of Art. ‘The Window Cleaner’ is a 10’ high bronze sculpture commissioned for Capital House & constructed in 1990. Click pictures to enlarge...



Not far from the statue today...

Firefighters rescue window cleaners ‘dangling’ from cradle on 18th floor of Marylebone tower block: Two window cleaners “dangling” from their cradle 18 floors up on the side of a tower block were rescued by firefighters today. The cleaners were caught out as winds started to buffet their cradle shortly after 11am, forcing the men to cling to the building in Cavendish Square, Marylebone, to steady themselves.

Firefighters had to remove a window in the building to pull the men to safety a little under half an hour after the alarm was raised. They were checked for shock by the London Ambulance Service at the scene, but not thought to be badly hurt. Specially-trained rescue crews from Clerkenwell fire station were among 14 firefighters who attended, and used ropes and other specialist equipment to secure the cradle and rescue the men.

Watch manager Tim Marcham from Soho fire station, who was in charge of the rescue, said: “The two men were getting uneasy because they were effectively dangling from the cradle and the wind was getting up so they had to hold on to the building to stop it from swaying. “We decided to take out the window and brought the men into the building. They were understandably shocked and quite nervous in view of the height they were off the ground. The firefighters worked well in challenging circumstances.”

Rescue scene: Building in Cavendish Square.
Window cleaners hang on for dramatic 18th-floor rescue:  Firefighters rescued two window cleaners who were trapped outside the 18th floor of a high rise building in Marylebone on Monday. The cleaners had to hold on to the side of the building in Cavendish Square to stop their stranded cradle from swaying in the wind and were said to be getting increasingly uneasy. Fourteen firefighters cordoned off the ground beneath the dangling cleaners before using ropes to secure their platform and breaking a window to let them into the building. The rescue operation took just under half an hour.

The cleaners were checked for shock by paramedics at the scene but were thought not to be badly hurt. Soho fire station watch manager Tim Marcham, in charge of the rescue, said: “The two men were getting uneasy because they were effectively dangling from the cradle and the wind was getting up so they had to hold on to the building to stop it from swaying. We decided to take out the window and brought the men into the building. “They were understandably shocked and quite nervous in view of the height they were off the ground. The firefighters worked well in challenging circumstances.”

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