A Converted Bowling Alley

If anyone needs a clue to the past of Paul and Nicola Pendall’s home near York, they should look no further than the 55-foot-long glazed corridor running almost the full length of the house. The stunning walkway, with its white walls and glass ceiling, is dual testimony to the Pendalls’ eye for modern design and their empathy for the building’s unique history. For the long, low brick building was once renowned as the first automated bowling alley in Britain.

Built in the early 1950s for the US troops stationed at Elvington, the village landmark made headline news and paved the way for today’s sophisticated city bowling malls. It hit the headlines again a few years back when Nicola and Paul applied for permission to turn it into one of the most unusual family homes in the country.

“It generated a lot of interest,” says Nicola. “We were planning to gut the building and change its use entirely, but we didn’t want to lose sight of its history. A lot of people remembered it from when it was built.”

It certainly caused quite a stir among the locals. As one of the county’s landmark social venues, the bowling alley was a regular meeting place for members of Strategic Air Command. After the Cold War it stood empty for a long time until a local businessman bought it for storage. It wasn’t until Nicola and Paul offered to buy the building and turn it into a family home that the bowling alley once again came under the spotlight.

“We’d always liked its location and knew it could be converted into a house,” says Nicola. “We were over the moon when the owner agreed to sell it, but we faced an agonising wait to get planning permission for change of use. It had to be offered to let for six consecutive months, to prove no one wanted to use it as a commercial store, before permission would be granted. It was quite nerve-wracking.” But their patience paid off and, amid a flurry of local media interest, Nicola and Paul paid £100,000 to become the proud owners of the ramshackle building, complete with original bowling pits and an asbestos roof.

The couple planned to do most of the renovation and conversion work themselves, even though Paul was already running his own wholesale business, PP Snack Foods in Elvington, and Nicola was looking after their young daughter, Evie, who was just a year old when they bought the property.

“I’d always wanted to build my own house, but we could never find the right plot, so this was the next best thing,” says Paul. “We wanted to project manage it ourselves and do as much labouring as we could, not only to save money but also to keep full control over the way it developed. It was hard work, but we loved doing it and it’s been hugely rewarding.”

While Paul spent every spare evening and weekend working on site, Nicola combined child care with sourcing materials, scheduling contractors and keeping the project moving forward — helped by her sister, Melanie, who was an estimator for a building company.

Paul cleared the entire site with the help of the property’s previous owner, Roy Hanley. Paul then stripped off the flat roof at one end of the building and unbolted the concrete asbestos roof panels so they could be taken away to an official disposal site. Bricked-up windows were opened up again and walls, dividing the entrance hall from toilets and a bar area, were taken out. The remaining walls were then supported with steel beams to create one large room.

“Neither of us had ever done anything like this before, so it was a huge learning curve,” says Paul. “We were lucky: a survey revealed that the fabric of the building was sound so we had a good base to work from and there were no major disasters. But it’s surprising what you can achieve if you set your mind to it.”

Paul and Nicola designed the layout of the rooms by chalking out the areas and laying breeze blocks on the floor to get an idea of their size. The glazed corridor evolved when Paul and Nicola wanted to link the daytime end of the house with the sleeping quarters at the opposite end. They couldn’t install extra windows along the east-facing back wall, which edges onto the boundary of their land, but they could install rooflights. To maximise the impact of natural light, they decided to turn the whole corridor into a stunning glazed walkway, ending in an open, pitched-ceiling sitting hall.

“We wanted to keep everything as light and high and spacious as possible,” says Nicola. “We have over 4,000 square feet of living space. Small rooms and low ceilings would have been a waste of potential.

“The walkway runs along the boundary of the plot so we couldn’t put any new windows along that side,” says Paul. “We got round the problem with a glazed ceiling which allows light to pour in without invading anyone’s privacy. It also meant we could exaggerate the feeling of light and height — which goes up to five metres.”

The house is fitted with a Unipipe zoned water-based underfloor heating system and all the walls were insulated with rockwool. Fibreglass rolls were fitted into the roof space and the floors were laid with a dampproof membrane over 100mm of Kingspan insulation.

“The main challenge of the whole build was bringing in the services,” says Paul. “It’s nearly 100m from the end of the drive to the back of the building. There were traffic lights operating while the road was dug up to bring in the electricity supply.” Although the property is on the edge of the village, there was also no mains sewerage so they have their own independent system.

“Most of the work was done at weekends and evenings,” says Paul. “We just maintained a steady pace.” It was an ambitious project for just two busy people but, through sheer hard work and determination, Paul and Nicola managed to convert the bowling alley into a home in less than a year.

Now those who remember the bowling alley in its prime can only marvel at the way it’s been so sympathetically transformed. It’s not difficult to imagine the building reverberating to the rumbles and clatter of bowls thundering down the lanes or the laughter and banter of US troops of Strategic Air Command as they unwound in the ground-breaking bowling alley on their doorstep. Yet none of them would have imagined that, half a century later, the automated alley would have been converted into one of the most individual family homes in the country.

“We do feel very lucky to be living here,” smiles Nicola. “It’s been a huge labour of love, but we’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

The Conversion in Progress

1. The original building had a concrete asbestos roof and bricked-up windows.
2. Work began by stripping the flat roof and disposing of it to an official disposal site. Luckily a survey found that the fabric of the building was sound. Walls dividing the entrance hall from toilets and a bar area were taken out and steel beams were added to support the remaining walls.
3. The layout of the new rooms was created with breeze blocks; it took 5,000 blocks to create the internal layout.
4. A new roof is added. The ceilings are quite low and extra windows on the back wall were prohibited so rooflights were installed, along with a glazed walkway.

Further reading:

• We turned a former petrol station into our dream home
• £44,000 turned a railway station into a home
• A Converted Brewery