BRADFORD on Avon’s historic Kingston House will open this summer as a workspace and innovation centre after nearly 25 years of being vacant.

The Georgian building, of Kingston Road, is being reopened in an effort to boost the town’s economy as a high specification workspace for new and aspiring businesses.

Founder and CEO of Kingston House Limited and the project itself, Gerald Milward-Oliver, wants want to boost enterprise in the town by bringing back into sustainable use a building at the heart of Bradford on Avon’s industrial heritage.

“This is an extremely exciting venture that can be home to some of tomorrow’s great businesses, providing a focus for innovation and creativity at all levels,” he said.

“This has been in the pipeline for a while and quite a lot of investment is going into this refurbishment. This is a great opportunity to boost employment and trading in the town.

“I am looking forward to discussing it with people and making this building something the town can be proud of. It hasn’t been able to shine for far too long.”

Mr Milward-Oliver says he wants to provide the town with one of the finest working environments in the West of England, providing a focus for innovation and creativity, with a very competitive and all-inclusive tariff.

“This is a win-win situation. It has been quite a long journey getting everything prepared,” said Mr Milward-Oliver, who has been involved in the redevelopment of the Kingston Mill for 15 years.

“This town should carry on as a historic working town and hopefully we can get this up and running and the events side is very important and can help the town in all sorts of ways."

The building will also host the Kingston House Foundation, a not-for-profit enterprise that will host training sessions, seminars, debates and conferences – with a focus on engineering, industrial design and small-scale manufacturing.

“The Foundation is an integral part of what we are going to create in Bradford on Avon,” he said.

“The idea is to build on the great history of invention in the town, most recently seen in the decades of ground-breaking design work by the late Alex Moulton – the quintessential engineer’s engineer – and by the continuing success of pioneering engineering companies such as Anthony Best Dynamics and Steve Vick International."

“It is going to be amazing and we can really make a big difference.”

For more information visit the website http://www.kingstonhouse.org.uk/.