As the National Gallery’s sell-out Poets and Lovers draws to a close, the Observer joins the crowd in the early hours of the morning

Forget Soho bars, Covent Garden ­eateries, King’s Cross clubs and Mayfair casinos, the place to be in ­central London at one o’clock on Saturday morning was the National Gallery’s sell-out Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition.

For only the second time in its ­history, the gallery acted like a ­frantic student on the eve of finals and pulled an all-nighter.