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Notes
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A lot of people get a surprise when they first encounter Chris McCann several floors up in an office block. They look out of a window and see him grinning on the other side. Meet him in the pub, and he might tell you he’s a tubular structural engineer. He’s one of the best scaffolders in the business. Born near Sittingboume, Kent, in 1966, he’s been scaffolding since he was 14, working part-time when he was still at school, and then full-time after his 16th birthday. It was his neighbour ‘Dodger’, Terry, boss of T. Friar and Sons, who got him into the business. Chris had spells with other companies, but he returned to Dodger in 1990 and has been there ever since. He is now in charge of the nine scaffolders. He pulls in £100 a day, plus a bonus for finishing a job early.
Chris says: 'It can get a bit "scary Mary" in a howling gale if you slip off a pole before you’ve laid the wooden platform down. I once fell 15ft and cracked a couple of ribs – nothing serious. Serious is when you slip and fall onto a pole with one leg on either side. That’s when it stings in the gonad zone.
Poles can freeze to your hands in winter and burn your hands in the summer. But I love the job. The only thing I’d rather be is a Page Three photographer. Some would-be scaffolders last just a day, and others just a month, but the rest of us are a breed apart. On a sunny day, when we’re up there in our shorts, getting a tan and looking down on all these pretty women, that’s when we are masters of the universe.'
Royal Society of Portrait Painters People's Portraits collection at Girton College, University of Cambridge
Cambridge
Title
Chris McCann, Scaffolder
Date
2000
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 100 x W 87 cm
Accession number
471
Acquisition method
on loan from the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
Work type
Painting
Inscription description
signature
Royal Society of Portrait Painters People's Portraits collection at Girton College, University of Cambridge
Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB3 0JG England
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Mrs A. T. Williamson (b.1944), Headmistress (1995–2005) Dame Alice Owen's School -
Professor Patrick Dowling University of Surrey -
Professor Arthur Maurice Lucas, CBE, AO, PhD, FIBiol, FACE, FKC, Principal (1993–2003) King's College London -
Sir James Pitman (d.1985), Pro-Chancellor (1966–1981) University of Bath -
Chelsea Pensioners: Chris Melia, Royal Artillery The Royal Hospital Chelsea -
Chelsea Pensioners: Sam Weekes, Royal Sussex The Royal Hospital Chelsea -
Chelsea Pensioners: Frank Chambers, BEM, Royal Fusilers The Royal Hospital Chelsea - 121 more