An indoor climbing facility and leisure centre is set to open this summer.

The Climbing Experience will cater for as many as 400 people of all ages and levels of experience when it welcomes the public to the Powerhub Business Centre site in Maidstone later this year.

It is set to offer themed fun wall climbing, a 30-metre competition and 12-metre traverse wall, and a dedicated bouldering space of more than 700 square metres.

The state-of-the art facility - which describes itself as Kent’s first multi-discipline indoor climbing centre - will also include a yoga studio, cross-fit and body building facilities, a soft play area and a café.

Co-founders Robert Woods and Ed Neil say The Climbing Experience will be able to cater for children in the form of after-school clubs and adults by offering space for business meetings and team-building experiences.

The sport is identified as one of the best for building up fitness, with an intense climbing session burning between 600 and 1,000 calories an hour.

Work to bring the building, off St Peter's Street, up-to-scratch is well under way and could open for business as early as July.

Mr Woods said: “With climbing set to be an event at the 2020 Olympics, this is an increasingly popular sport; but up to now, people in Kent have had to travel a long way to find indoor climbing facilities.

"Maidstone is Kent’s county town and is growing, with large numbers of school children, students and young professionals looking for a challenging healthy activity they can pursue with friends.

"The Climbing Experience gives them fantastic facilities – a match for some of the best in the country.”

He added: "This is being set up by two Kent-based climbers who share passions not only for climbing but also great customer service.

"We want it to cater for all interests and levels, it's going to be a great community service-based fitness and leisure centre.

"If you've never climbed before it can maybe be a bit daunting at first, or when you arrive at these kinds of places you might not know where to go, so we'll be offering people tours of the building to show them around and make them feel comfortable."

It comes off the back of the recent opening of a Clip 'n Climb facility in Dover.

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