Fun house

THE PARKERS' BOLD VISION AND TENACITY HELPED THEM TRANSFORM A DERELICT GRADE-II LISTED TURKISH BATHS IN HASTINGS INTO THE ULTIMATE FAMILY PLAYGROUND

- Amy Maynard

The bijou frontage of Laurie and Solomon Parker's house, set on a quiet street a few roads back from the sea in Hastings, gives little clue as to what lies within. Stepping inside the property, visitors are transported to a magical land of fun and wonder. The couple have painstakingly transformed the former Turkish baths into a playground that now features a vast open-plan living space, bedecked with original fairground signs, arcade games and a full-size bowling alley.

"We were renting in south-east London and found the house randomly after driving down to Camber Sands," remembers Laurie. "We ended up following the road to Hastings, saw all the antique shops and thought it was a marvellous place."

This day trip prompted 'Zoopla addict' Solomon to look at property for sale in the area, which is when he came across a former bath house that had been on the market for ten years. The grade-II listed building was built in the mid-1800s and started life as a Turkish bath house, before being converted into a swimming pool for a local school during Victorian times. After a brief spell as a church, it was then used as a glass factory before lying empty for a decade. "The previous owner wanted to make it into a family home for his daughter and already had planning permission in place, but then he ran out of money," says Laurie. "It was just getting more and more derelict - the roof had fallen in and trees were starting to grow through the walls.

It was going to take a huge amount of vision and a sizable fund to turn the building into a home. "The old owner showed us around. We walked in and both knew we needed to live in it, which is weird because it didn't look like a house at all," says Laurie.