[3][4] Miles had been running the bookshop and alternative happenings venue Better Books but with new, more traditional, owners arriving, had been planning to open his own bookstore/venue.

Through Paolo Leonni, Miles met John Dunbar who was planning on opening a gallery, and with John's friend Peter Asher as silent partner, they combined their ideas into a company called Miles, Asher and Dunbar Limited (MAD)[5] to start the Indica Books and Gallery in September 1965, as an outlet for art and literature.

[6] They found empty premises at 6 Masons Yard, which was in the same courtyard as the Scotch of St James club,[7] where John Dunbar was living with his girlfriend Marianne Faithfull,[8] when he discovered the place.

Co-owner John Dunbar had seen Ono’s performances of Cut Piece at the Destruction in Art Symposium in September and invited her to make an exhibition for the Indica Gallery.

Jackson's had decided to concentrate on the export side of its business and sold a twenty-year lease of the retail bookshop to Miles, Asher, and Dunbar.

Chris Hill and his wife Jo, who owned William Jackson Books, had taken a flat above the shop on Southampton Row and ran the export business from there.