Up The Garden Bath: Recycling venture gets ready for Next chapter in Peterborough's Queensgate

Staff and volunteers at a special pop-up shop in Peterborough’s Queensgate Shopping Centre are celebrating after hitting a sales target.

The Unity pop-shop, run by city-based recycling venture Up The Garden Bath, and which featured 40 small independent retailers, generated sales of £20,000 in just six weeks.

Buoyed by the success of the venture, Up The Garden Bath has been asked to expand the Unity venture with a move to the two-storey former Next store in the Queensgate centre to open on July 24.

Dave Poulton, co-founder of Up The Garden Bath community interest company, which specialises in recycling old bathtubs into planters for schools, care homes and community centres, said they had just a few days to move out of their current unit and into the former Next store.

In a social media post, he stated: “We want to thank everyone that popped into our Unity pop-up shop and helped us generate over £20k in sales for small local businesses in just six weeks.

"It's been an amazing journey and we can’t wait for the Next chapter.

Mr Poulton says the aim is to increase the number of vendors to 75 and hopefully to fill all the space on the first floor.

He said: "There will also be a lot of workshops aimed at children as it will be the school holidays.

"Once that’s done we’ll look at the second floor."

Kez Hayes-Palmer, co-founder, said: “Queensgate is keen to see our UNITY project succeed and wants to give local businesses the opportunity to reach a larger audience."