Anthony Gormley at the Hayward Gallery is already a crowd-pleaser in spite of some sniffy critics, who are tormented by artists with popular appeal.

Laura Cumming of the Observer, for example, finds Gormley “repetitive,” but also wished that he had repeated his early work, that she does like. Laura Cumming did praise the Don Flavin show of fluorescent lighting at the same venue. See this.

And when she described Gormley as “pompous”, I almost choked on my breakfast cereal. See this again.

Miss Cumming found the rooftop figures unimpressive, so you may thus be assured that they were indeed impressive to all about us young and old.

From the gallery they were treated reverentially. Up close on Waterloo Bridge they were a bundle of fun. A passing Manchester United fan grappled with the Gormley nether regions that Ms Cumming seemed to admire. Mrs Monk joined in the fun.

Spot the Gormley Ms. Cumming.

shoestringonline.co.uk