A JERICHO bicycle shop will reopen today after a three-month refurbishment and extension.

Walton Street Cycles closed in early January and has been operating out of the nearby former premises of Posh Fish.

The shop had to be closed for safety reasons while builders added an extension and made other structural changes.

But it now boasts new workshop facilities, a redesigned and more spacious interior and also a wall devoted to a map of the Oxford area, a useful guide for the shop’s fledgling cycle holiday business.

Co-owner Kevin Moreland said on Friday that he and his staff were looking forward to moving back in.

He said: “It is going to really help us.

“Before we were split across two sites but now we can work more closely as a team.

“The new layout – which was a bit pokey before – should also hopefully allow people to find things much more easily.”

Work carried out from January involved adding two new workshops to the back of the shop and changing the basement into an open-plan design, as well as other minor improvements.

Some changes, such as the wall map, will also help expand the business’s offering.

Mr Moreland said it could be used to show visitors routes that are good for cycle holidays.

Walton Street Cycles last year began started offering a holiday service, offering to meet arrivals, transfer luggage, arrange accommodation and rent bicycles for countryside rides.

The shop owner said: “It started off after we started hiring bikes out to people and we have had some really good feedback about it.

“It has been less of a business idea and more about helping people do something we all liked doing, because we cycle most of the routes ourselves.

“Cycle holidays are something we hope more people get into, because although there is nothing wrong with sipping cocktails on a beach, a cycle holiday is something a bit different.”

The extension work became necessary after the owner of the cycle shop’s former workshop in Cranham Terrace said its lease would not be renewed after January 15.

Originally staff had hoped to remain in the shop while extensions were carried out, but this was ruled out over safety concerns.

Instead the shop’s landlord St John’s College, through its agent Savills, helped to arrange a temporary premises that used to house Posh Fish.

The former chip shop was closed in July and much of its furniture put under the hammer, but it is also owned by St John’s College and was offered to Walton Street Cycles at a below-market rate.

Mr Moreland said: “It was a chip shop, so even though we were very grateful it was quite hard to turn it into a workshop.

“And there was also the smell of fish.

Mr Moreland said: “Savills and St John’s were very good to us, but we are really happy to be going back to our proper premises.”

It had been agreed with landlord St John’s to pay for the main construction work through an increase in rent, Mr Moreland added.