Williamson Square is one of Liverpool city centre’s few public spaces. Alas its value has been unrecognized and its potential squandered by poor management, questionable planning decisions and an underlying absence of a vision. Re-imaging the square as a vibrant public gathering and event space needed more than new street furniture and yet another development framework. Our ideas were developed in conversation with neighbours, visitors and potential co-creators. The result a series of suggested interventions that were practical, radical and disruptive. Our starting point was a conviction that the square could not be re-imagined or re-animated by planners, nor could its future be plotted in isolation from the energy and identity latent in this part of the city centre. Home to the Playhouse and circled by a cluster of emerging and established cultural and leisure attractions, Williamson’s Square is the heart of an urban district whose identity is predicated on performance–  a space to be curated not managed.