Duke Of York’s Statue (1961)

L/S of the statue of the Duke of York in Waterloo Place, London; ropes are attached down the sides of the column and scaffolding surrounds the statue at the top. C/U of a man, woman and child looking up at the statue; L/S looking up the column from the base. M/S of the statue on top with the scaffolding boards around it; C/Us of the Duke of York’s face showing his curly hair and sideburns. Commentator explains that the statue is being cleaned; “The job called for a pair of steeplejacks to act as batmen, because, although there are stairs inside the column, work on the Duke is mostly done from the scaffolding“. We see two men standing on the scaffolding and scrubbing the surface of the statue, with very high views of London seen in the distance - without lots of horrible modern skyscrapers! We are told this is the first time the column has been cleaned since it was erected in 1833, although the statue is cleaned about every ten years. M/S of the men cleaning, panning left to look across the scaffold