Even Jonathan “JD” Downey’s to-do list has something of an edge to it. “Our f*cking website,” reads one of the many Post-It notes plastered around the 52-year-old former Square Mile lawyer’s office, the Shoreditch headquarters of his street food market operator London Union. “Our f*cking app,” says another.

Little about Downey’s business is entirely conventional. London Union’s chain of Street Feast markets, at which independent traders such as Mother Clucker, Yum Bun and Up In My Grill pay a pitch fee to dish up fried chicken, Taiwanese steamed buns and steak, have turned underused and unloved corners of the capital into thriving nightlife spots.