Daybreak, 100 years after the end of World War One. I went to the Tower of London, expecting few people to be there. But the area was packed with people.

They had come to glimpse at a spectacle which has captured imaginations. The moat of this famous landmark has been gradually filled with a sea of ceramic poppies – 888,246 to be precise. Each represents a British military fatality during the 1914-18 conflict.

On this chilly early morning, viewers were taking in the sight and almost universally taking snapshots. More than five million visitors later, this has been photographed from practically every angle. I found myself drawn to the people gazing at the mass of scarlet and the occasional tributes to fallen veterans.

As the removal of the poppies begins, I wonder whether visitors came to glimpse a landmark art installation or really did treat it as an act of remembrance. Either way, this has made a deep and lasting impact.

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