THE manager of an Oxford cycle shop devastated by a huge blaze last night spoke about watching his life’s work being destroyed.

Keith Gosling worked at Cycle King for 27 years before 15ft flames wrecked the Cowley Road shop on March 31.

But he has spent the last three days with colleagues setting up for tomorrow’s opening of a new temporary store just yards down the road.

Manager Mr Gosling said: “The fire had already taken hold by the time I got there, so I just stood with the other staff watching it burn.

“It was difficult to see after all the work we have put into it over the years, it was quite distressing.

“My first reaction was initially shock. I have never experienced a fire before, so to see the whole thing in flames was horrific, especially when we saw it go through the roof.

“The firefighters did an amazing job, but to see somewhere you have spent so much time and effort over the years destroyed was tough.”

He estimated 1,600 bicycles – 700 on display and the rest in store – were destroyed at a loss of more than £200,000 for the bikes alone.

Mr Gosling, from Stanford in the Vale, helped move Cycle King from Walton Street to Cowley Road in 2000 and said it was daunting to have to start all over again.

Oxfordshire fire and rescue spokesman Sam Henry said an investigation had found the blaze was accidental, caused by an electrical fault.

Bosses at the family-owned business announced this week their new temporary shop will be just 100 yards down the road.

They are moving from 128-130 Cowley Road to 193 Cowley Road – in the empty Spice Furniture building opposite the O2 Academy.

They collected the keys for the new shop on Wednesday and began wheeling in some of the 350 bikes for display.

Cycle King’s operations director Nicholas Thake said: “We are really looking forward to the grand opening.

“We were really upset when we found out about the fire.

“It was only 13 years ago we moved to Cowley Road from Walton Street and to see it all go up like that was really sad. And now we have to start it all again.

“But we are committed to Oxford so it is just something we need to sort.”

The store – one of a chain of 27 across the country – is half the size of the original at 2,500sq ft, and will have 350 bikes on display rather than 700.

But Mr Thake said they had chosen some of their best selling bikes to stock and were confident business turnover could be similar by ordering and storing stock more carefully.

The seven full-time one part-time members of staff have been travelling to work in different Cycle King shops outside the county and will be back at work in Oxford tomorrow.

They will be operate the new shop until repair work to the original is finished. Scaffolding is supporting the building until it is made structurally safe.

The company said it was not yet known when the original shop might be able to reopen.

One lane of Cowley Road was closed for a time after the fire, and the pavement is still blocked to pedestrians.