Pop-ups are the epitome of our high-speed, short-attention-span culture. They are restaurants, bars, clubs and shops that spring up in unexpected locations, cause a storm, and disappear just before the fashion crowd moves on to the next big thing. Comme des Garçons started the trend in 2004 with its guerrilla stores. Now London is totally pop-up-tastic. Following the success of the Reindeer restaurant, the Bistrotheque boys have now decamped (actually and aesthetically) from Bethnal Green to Burlington Gardens. Flash, their grown-up restaurant in the Royal Academy, will be over in just that. Tyler Brûlé has turned shopgirl in his design-led roving microstore for Monocle magazine. Blink and you’d have missed Mary Portas’s hyper-pop-up: open for just one hour to sell vintage clothes in Bishopsgate earlier this month. Then there’s the Foundry, flogging quirky homewares in different spaces around the capital; Atelier Moët on Bond Street, where you can customise champagne bottles (although its last day is today); and the Proud Gallery, which started off as merely a marquee over a car park.

It’s a perfect concept for our hype-heavy society. Nowhere can be the hottest place to be seen in for more than six months, so by pulling it down and starting again, businesses can be constantly reinvented. Because they are temporary, pop-ups can take risks. They don’t need as much polish, so they don’t need as much investment — perfect for recessionistas. And the latest and most daring is the Double Club.

Created by Carsten Höller — the artist who put the giant slides in Tate Modern — and produced by Fondazione Prada, it’s the first pop-up to boast a bar, restaurant and nightclub. It’s in a converted Victorian warehouse down a dodgy alley behind Angel Tube station — for six months only. Gareth Pugh and Jefferson Hack have already done DJ sets, and Zaha Hadid, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Nicholas Serota have also found it — there’s no sign outside, but cashmere-clad security guards give it away.

The Double Club — as you might guess — is a dichotomy between two cultures: the West and the Congo. Yes, the Congo. The very heart of darkness. “It’s not a clash,” Höller says. “It’s a juxtaposing.” With the emphasis on posing. The single-level space is split into three areas, thematically divided.

“It’s like a Rothko painting,” he says. “Two fields of colour, contrasting but complementary. The West and the Congo have had terrible interaction for a long time. We’re bringing people together temporarily, using music, food and art. It’s very positive.” Profits from this venture go to the City of Joy charity, helping rape victims in the Congo.

“Kinshasa is amazing,” says Mourad Mazouz, of Sketch and Momo, who runs the bar and restaurant. “Yes, it can be dangerous, but so can London. It’s a risk.” But with the Double Club, the risk is paying off. It’s familiar but foreign — like you’ve somehow wandered into the coolest bar in the Congolese capital.

“It’s about interaction,” Höller says. “If you want to be all arty, you can. Or you can just have a night out.” Among the clientele are men in serious Saatchi-esque specs and women wearing barbaric jewellery, plus Versace-clad members of the Congolese Society of Buzz-Makers and Elegant People. “It’s a living installation,” says Mazouz.

One whole wall of the bar is a tiled mural of a futuristic flying city. Opposite is a colourful, billboard-style painting by Chéri Samba. The corrugated-iron Congolese side of the bar contrasts with the slick, copper West. Sadly, Congolese beer isn’t always available. “Problems back home, you know,” the barman sighs.

In the restaurant, Helford oysters, line-caught red mullet and partridge represent the West; fried plantains, giant spicy shrimps and lightly spiced goat stew top the Congolese choices.

“We built it all from scratch,” says Mazouz, tapping a temporary wall. The menu changes fortnightly. When it all stops in May, the moveable art returns to its donors. Structural features, such as the mural, will stay. The Double Club will be part of pop-up history.

“It’s neither a very long exhibition or a very short-term restaurant,” says Höller. “It’s both.” thedoubleclub.co.uk

TOP OF THE POP-UPS

Flash keeps tables back each night for walk-in hopefuls. Open until January 19; bookflashnow.com. Flash teapot, £68.51, wedgwood.com

The Foundry is presently in Covent Garden Piazza. Limited editions include the Wire Light, £145. Catch it while you can — the store moves every few months; foundryonline.co.uk

The Monocle Shop is filled with high design, such as Drakes scarves, £95 each, all sourced by its founder, Tyler Brûlé; monocle.com

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