That was horrendous!!
I was working on the roof of the Euston Tower (called something else now) in the late 80s and there was a crane stretched down Tottenham Court Road to lift some comms dishes on the roof. One of the crane blokes stood on the hook of the crane, held on to the wire and it lifted him onto the roof. No safety harness, no clips, nothing.
When he 'landed' he just jumped off the hook, looked at us and said 'it's quicker than getting in the lift'. I thought he was mental. Can you imagine what the HSE would do nowadays!