A new ‘hotel’ has opened in London’s East End which is already crawling with bugs.

But there is no public safety issue over the structure erected without formal planning permission from the local authority.

It’s an insect habitat put up at the Limehouse Basin by the Canal & River Trust, the charity that looks after the nation’s waterways, for use by bees, spiders, ladybirds and woodlice.

It is also being used by human ‘book worms’ as the first-ever book exchange on London’s canals.

“There’s been a huge turnover of books so far,” the trust’s local towpath ranger Darren Starling claimed. “The canals in the East End are home to a wonderful community of creatures and it’s also nice that humans are taking time out to share books with each other.”

The structure has shelves for people to borrow books to read as well as the specially-designed crevices providing habitats for tiny creatures.