An entrepreneur has set up shop in an old carpet warehouse and hopes to develop it as a focal point for furniture and craft traders.

Matt Stanbury has taken on the former Allied Carpets premises in on the Seacourt Retail Park, Botley, in a bid to offer small businesses a retail space and to also run a craft fair.

Mr Stanbury, who runs his own restored furniture business, Class Eco-Design, has obtained the space which has been empty for more than three years rent-free.

He said: “There is nothing in Oxford like this offering crafts and ‘upcycled’ furniture.

“I have travelled around the region and seen local co-operatives and pop-up shops set up in other towns and this seemed a good opportunity.”

Mr Stanbury’s plan is to attract traders into the building rent-free. They will simply share the costs of staffing and heating. Already he has six businesses signed with room for many more in the large building.

The building is also shared by charity Healthy Planet which operates its Books for Free project there. Healthy Planet operates by doing a deal with landlords who make it a donation instead of paying empty property tax.

Ultimately, the enterprise is being run on a short-term ‘pop up’ basis with the building, owned by the BA pension fund, set to be part of a £15m redevelopment of the retail park including the neighbouring former Habitat store which had been empty for two years until the Oxford Food Bank moved in last December. The traders’ fair take place on March 2 and 3.