Alfresco dining...

The recent warm, sunny weather has enabled us all to dine alfresco. Wherever there's a little space, restaurants, cafes and bars have put tables and chairs out on the pavements for us to enjoy the sun.

One of the nicest belongs to Mr Thomas's Chop House, the iconic Victorian pub on Cross Street. The dining space is behind the pub in the yard of St Ann's Church. You can sit in the sun or under the shade of the trees. Enjoy a drink and some food, watch well heeled Manchester go by and contemplate some of the prettiest architecture in the city. Not just the church itself but Winter's Chambers with its red brick and terracotta tiles, now home to Gap. And the lovely sandstone and red brick Victorian bank building that now houses RBS.

I wonder if the diners here realise that they are dining in a graveyard with our Stuart and Georgian ancestors resting just below the paving stones?