4th Trafalgar Square plinth finally vacant

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Today the last of 2,400 members of the public climbed down from the normally vacant 4th plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. Each has occupied the space for one hour, 24 hours a day for 100 days in sculptor Anthony Gormley's "One and Other" project.

The other three plinths in the famous square are occupied by long-forgotten Victorian generals. This was an opportunity to engage ordinary citizens in Public Art.

Anyone over 16 was eligible to occupy the space, the only stipulation being that they couldn't take anything up there which they couldn't conveniently carry themselves. Participants have ranged from a lap-dancer to a Road Safety Campaigner to a Liverpool Football Club supporter.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Trafalgar Square, London. Nelson's Column. Landseer's bronze lions.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

One of the other three Trafalgar Square plinths exhibiting a more conventional artwork. Canada House in the background. Not sure who the statue depicts, but it's probably a dead white male.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Sir Edwin Landseer liked to model his sculptures from life models, but since an obvious danger to life and limb presented itself in modelling a live lion he arranged for a stuffed specimen to be installed in his studio.

Regrettably, Landseer's stuffed lion had been imperfectly preserved and soon began to putrify.

So, if the lions guarding Nelson's column look a little blurry around the edges, blame an incompetent anonymous Early Victorian taxidermist.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Sculptor Anthony Gormley flanked by a few of the 4th plinth occupants.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Man taking bath.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Man with big red balloon.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Godzilla played a little swing-ball tennis, constructed a model of London and then smashed it to pieces.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Man dressed as a turd protests about the number of people in the world who don't have clean drinking water.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

This man is not a pigeon.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Gender: Number of posts: 154 Registration date: 2009-08-23

Eddie wrote:

This man is not a pigeon.

I have my doubts.

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

The exhibitionist on the far right in the red coat is about to become intimately acquainted with a pigeon.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Gender: Number of posts: 154 Registration date: 2009-08-23

Since the scheme of using hawks to control the amount of pigeons in Trafalgar square started in July 2003, a total of £354,829 has been spent on hawks and 130 pigeons have been killed. This equates to £2,729 spent per dead bird.

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

...and the canny "fying rats" who eluded the hawks have simply flown east and taken up residence on my balcony, which now resembles something out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds".

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

Well, the inevitable question must now be thrown open to the forum at large:

If you were allotted one hour of your life to stand on a plinth in Trafalgar Square, how would you present yourself to the world?

I'm still considering my response.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas