Following the departure of John Lewis from the historic city centre department store building to a new home as the anchor for the Liverpool 1 retail development, the beautiful building began a slow decline to abandonment and semi-dereliction. Working with builder’s new owners, we were asked to curate a 6-month programme of meanwhile and pop-up activity to reconnect the much-loved landmark with the people of the city. The programme included creating the central exhibition gallery for Liverpool’s Independent Biennial, a pop-up retail space for a young person’s charity, short-term work and studio space for makers and artists, and an interactive engagement and event space to ponder the future design and development of the city centre.