We've all seen the shots of daredevil construction workers clambering over the half-built Empire State Building. London has its own equivalent in these footsure scaffolders high above the Houses of Parliament.
The photograph shows a team of workers removing the scaffolding from the Victoria Tower in 1954. The tower — one of the tallest in London at the time — had been partially shrouded in metal since 1937.
The lack of harness, high-vis and hard hat were common practice until relatively recent times.
Image from the Illustrated London News, 20 March 1954. Courtesy of the British Library Board via the British Newspaper Archive.
