There is no restriction on taking photos in a public place like the public highway, although the Police have been known to try to stop this. So images of London shot in the Londo streets is fine.

To take photos inside a private building or grounds, or of a building from private grounds, requires the permission of the owners of the grounds where the photographer stands to take the images. If you photograph a private property from public land you are probably in the clear. A private property from privae land or inside the property, that needs permission. However old the building is and whatever the public access may be.

The National Trust has in the past sued professional photographers for taking photos with a tripod and without permission on their land. The photographer Fay Godwin was prevented from photographing on Trust grounds without permission for example. In some cases a permit can be purchased for commercial photography.

Manchester Cathedral is private property, even though the public has right of access, it is owned by the Church of England. Photographing the interior is probably sanctioned by the authorities for visitors, but if there are notices saying No Commercial Photography without Permission (or similar) then they are bang to rights and Sony will have to cough up.

In the UK museums galleries often ban photography of their "Old Masters" because once an item is out of copyright (70 years after creators death) anyone can copy it from the original. So they ban photography of the original, and then sell photos they have taken because they own the copyright in the photos. So far as I am aware for example, photography is banned in Tate Britain, although not, interestingly in the V&A's main galleries.

The situation is different in the States, where they take a much freer attitude. In a recent test case, a British Picture Library sued an american publisher for reproducing an image of an old master in its collection, citing copyright in the image. The US judge ruled against them saying images of our cultural heritage should be freely available. This is not the view taken by the British cultural establishment.

Of equal interest is the point made by several commentators, why choose Manchester Cathedral and not, for example, Finsbury Park Mosque.