Of all the second languages Tower Hamlets Council would include in notices, German is most unexpected: only 2.1% of its population was born in Germany.

A black dumpster with a multilingual notice in English and German, and a Free Palestine sticker

The magic went away

A digital advertising screen shows an input error

Morning sky over Hackney Central station

Blue sky with wispy clouds and fading vapour trails above the modern Graham Road entrance to Hackney Central Station, the station name in the bold orange of the Overground

No train on the tracks

Traintracks past a Victorian railway building in hazy morning light

Crispy bagged salad

Colourful bags of salad haphazardly on the supermarket shelves

Fire prevention

The green illuminated LCD display of a fire alarm panel shows a fault

In the well-being corner of Canary Wharf, the over-monied can pay to be locked in a freezer

Shop front advertising hyperbaric and cryo therapy

East End sakura

This tree is in Vallance Road Gardens, Whitechapel, in London’s East End. The last V2 to strike London during WW2 hit on the north side of this park, destroying a social housing block there, killing 132.

A cherry tree in full blossom in a small park in London's East End

Pigeons enjoy a characteristic East End meal

Urban pigeons on a drain cover in a park eat discarded naan bread and curry - one bird flies into the shot

Windy afternoon for the coots on Telehouse Pond

A pond in the city, windblown reeds and a fountain plume bent over by the wind. Two coots swim towards distant buildings