When should pop-ups become permanent?

If, like me, you’re interested in the parts of our towns and cities that are being regenerated, you’ll have likely found yourself wandering around a collection of independent pop-up retailers, drinking something from a local brewery, and telling your friends about the new “vibe” they’ve got going on down there.

Creating a sense of place when there’s nothing there to begin with is no easy task.

Why would anyone with any sense want to open a shop, restaurant, or bar if no one is going to be around to spend money for the next few years?

To overcome this challenge, developers deploy the clever art of temporary use, inviting local independents into these empty spaces, usually at vastly discounted rents (and often rent-free), encouraging them to set up shop for the next few years.

Usually, by virtue of being trendy types, before you know it, they’re selling more £10 pints of triple IPA than you can believe, and a whole crowd of (mostly younger) people are flocking to check out the new scene. Voila—your empty space starts feeling more like a happening place.

One of the best examples I can think of in London is Boxpark, the ramshackle group of shipping containers that appeared outside Shoreditch station in 2011, back when Shoreditch still had an edge to it. Since then, it’s brought more than 10 million people to what is otherwise a fairly ugly, busy road junction.

But what happens when the regeneration catches up, and that sense of place you needed to help sell the first phase of flats or lease out the larger commercial spaces is complete? When the transport connections now work, and people no longer have to walk 15 minutes through dimly lit streets?

Eventually, money talks. If the developer believes they can get a higher rent from a more established tenant, the very businesses that ‘popped up’ to make the place great will pack up their bags and head on to the next empty part of town that needs them.

And then, just like that, the vibe they nurtured and built is gone.

This year, Boxpark Shoreditch closed due to ongoing redevelopment in the area. I’m not naïve enough to blame developers for making financially sound decisions, but it seems odd that we go to such lengths to find the very people who make a place great, who create a vibe, and then, just as we’re ready to showcase the shiny new products we’ve built, those people are pushed away, leaving vacant spaces once again.