Permanence:a thing of the past.

Having spent a week in London I am now back in Manchester contemplating the differences between the two places. They are superficially similar (scale aside) insofar as they are both densely populated urban areas, but each is really defined by its underlying raison d'être. London evolved from Roman times as England's centre of wealth and power and has since augmented its position as a super-wealthy, international metropolis. Manchester sprang from the loins of the industrial revolution and has had to learn to cope with its change of fortune post-industrialisation. In its heyday Manchester was at the forefront of social, economic and scientific innovation - universal suffrage, the free trade movement and the splitting of the atom are just a few examples - but those were the glory days.

In the last two weeks I have met up with two separate sets of Australian friends visiting the UK: perhaps they are taking advantage of our heat-wave to escape their winter down under? Whatever their reasons, it is gratifying that our friendships persist despite their distant migration. Last week I spent time with Australian#1 in London, where we had once lived; this week Australians#2&3, a couple, were in Manchester, their old home town: they wanted me to show them aspects of the city that have changed since their time here.

Actually quite a lot has changed: there are bars and restaurant chains everywhere, some of which look exactly the same as they do in Sydney or Melbourne. To be fair to these omni-present, indentikit establishments, they must have started life as the kind of independent businesses that bring vibrancy to the streets. Now commoditised, however, they overwhelm the individuality of whichever neighbourhood they choose to inhabit.

I had to look off the beaten track for something more uniquely Mancunian. Our first stop was a newly-built square which, although it contains all the said chains, has at its centre a novelty - a couple of temporary, pop-up bars. Quite how this works commercially I don't understand. Does their presence not diminish business for the surrounding permanent establishments? Or does it, conversely, attract more footfall to the benefit of all businesses? In any case it is an idea imported from London where the combination of high rents and shortage of ready capital gave birth to this alternative business model which, perversely, is becoming so successful that it is starting to show signs of emergent chain-itis.

In London, high property values have obliged the young, creative population to locate eastwards towards places like Shoreditch where they can find a compromise between cost and convenience. This has created new hotspots of cultural cool and hip activity. In Manchester there has been a similar effect, albeit on a smaller scale, where the Northern Quarter of the city centre does service as the bohemian part of town, its Victorian warehouses, workshops, shops and houses being re-cycled rather than re-developed. My friends were impressed when they saw this change although, again, it is not a uniquely Mancunian idea. But then we came across an unexpected thing: a pop-up cathedral.

I immediately grasped the potential for this concept. Traditional, big stone-built churches are generally under-utilised, their dwindling congregations struggling to justify their upkeep. By abandoning them in favour of pop-ups they could free up the existing, permanent buildings for use as social centres, schools, youth clubs, market halls etc. And the advantage that portable places of worship would have is that they could follow demographic changes in the population, re-locating to suit their audience. It's a viable new model for changing times, providing convenient places of worship at minimal cost. Manchester's pioneering days may not be over just yet.