Smash hit

Mr Holmes, who lives in London but grew up in Manchester, admitted that he had been “slightly anxious” about his guerrilla protest. He had heard about the event on the radio this morning but did not decide he would carry out his protest until 20 minutes before the official opening.

Asked whether he thought he had upstaged Mrs Wardell, he said: “I don’t think I did anything to her.” His message to other protestors was: “If it’s important, do it.”

His performance was by far the most impassioned of the plinth occupants that morning. Most participants, having been given an hour to explore their moment of fame, found that they had little to say.

Mrs Wardell, 35, from Sleaford, Lincolnshire, stood impassively during her stint and was taciturn afterwards. “It’s just really peaceful, it’s really nice to see, to get a different view to the one you’d normally get,” she said.

She was delighted to have raised awareness of a good cause, but was looking forward to going back to looking after her two children tomorrow. Mr Holmes’s protest had not fazed her, she said. “It happened so quickly I didn’t have a chance to think about it at all.”

Jason Clark, the second participant, spent his hour standing with his hands in his pockets and admiring the view. The nurse, from Brighton, said that he wished to represent the ordinary British man. “It was really exciting. The first five minutes I was quite nervous and after that it all seemed serene. I thought, ‘don’t fall off first’. My legs were a bit wobbly for the first five minutes, I’m not great with heights, but then it was just about being up there. If you can weather the first five minutes it’s all right then.”

A heavy rain shower soaked Jill Gatcum, 51, the third participant, as she used her hour to inflate 61 balloons that had each been sponsored by friends who had given a charitable donation.

She said that she had taken a coat with her to go over her summer dress, but chose to brave the rain so that she could release more balloons. “I had made a decision before I went up there I would just go with the rain,” she said. “I would just pretend it wasn’t happening and just get on with it, which is what I did. It was fantastic, just the view, seeing your friends there all smiling and waving, the crowd and achieving what I set out to achieve, that was really satisfying.”

By the time of the fifth “plinther”, as Mr Gormley has termed the participants, the crowd had become restless. Scott Illman, who dressed as a town crier and entreated spectators to visit his two pubs, was heckled. Malcolm James, 53, an actor from Balham, South London, shouted: “Shut up about the pubs and tell us something interesting.”

Mr Illman retorted that people did not have to listen if they did not like his message, but grew dispirited and eventually sat down on the edge of the plinth. He recovered the sympathy of the crowd by saying that he wished to draw attention to entrepreneurs who are struggling in the recession.

One & Other was consistently more popular than the other plinths on the corners of the square on its opening day, and seems likely to remain so for the duration of the project.

King George IV, and 19th-century generals Charles Napier and Henry Havelock, may have had more impact in their day than any of the living individuals could hope to achieve, but they may find themselves overshadowed by the collective power of the artistic project.

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