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Portrait of Lord Scarman by Tom Phillips

Portrait of Lord Scarman by Tom Phillips
Accession Code: wu0306
Title: Portrait of Lord Scarman
Date completed: 1990
Medium: Painting
Location Name: Senate House
Location Floor:1

The portrait was commissioned to commemorate the Chancellorship of Lord Scarman from 1977-89. Lord Scarman was a Judge and Lord Appeal from 1977-86, and author of The Scarman Report, The Brixton Disorders 10-12 April 1981. The portrait in the background is of Mark Douglas, the Rastafarian who ran the restaurant in South London where Tom Phillips and Lord Scarman lunched during sittings. The columns symbolise the Pillars of the Law. Phillips explained these as a visual pun as Lord Scarman was a pillar of the Establishment and 'a capital fellow'. The quotation is taken from Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man. 57TR is 57 Talfourd Road where the sittings took place; Ch88 is Charter 88 founded by Lord Scarman and others with the intention of gaining support for the idea of a (BI)LL of RIGH(TS).