The Zamans Britain's Empty Homes

Across the country, empty properties that could be homes are just

waiting to be brought back into use.

I'll be finding out why,

and what you need to do to rescue a house for yourself.

And along the way, I'll be doing some digging of my own, to find out

more about our housing stock, our heritage, and why we should be

both reinventing and preserving Britain's empty homes.

Taking on an empty home can seem like a real risk

and, of course, there are many pitfalls to look out for.

But for people with vision, energy and ambition,

the potential of abandoned buildings is enormous.

On today's show, two generations of a family who've taken

a leap of faith jointly restoring an empty Methodist chapel.

I just thought, what are we going to do with this space? Wow!

It's massive.

A military jail which will no longer be confined to rack and ruin.

This is one of the cells, they are certainly not big, are they? No, no.

And we'll be following an empty property officer,

as he aims to rescue an abandoned and unloved home.

Just so sad to see all their possessions just turned upside down.

2011, Commandant Roy Zaman MBE and his wife, Sue, relocated from

Lancashire to Wiltshire

and were on the lookout for a renovation project.

The idea of creating our own unique home was appealing.

It was as if the stars aligned

when Roy got a tipoff about an auction of a rather divine property.

They called me one day and said, "We've got a chapel.

"It might just be what you're looking for."

I came and had a look at it and went, "Wow, this is big!

"It's too big for me."

And that's when I asked Paul and Laura to come and have a look at it.

And, yeah, they fell in love with it as well.

The plan was for Roy's son, Army aircraft engineer Paul Zaman,

and his wife, Laura, to join forces with dad, Roy,

building two separate homes and eventually living as next-door neighbours.

I could see it straight away.

It had potential to be a fantastic building,

and two fantastic properties.

I stop multi-million pound military aircraft falling out of the sky.

How hard can it be to design and build a house?

For the young couple it was the chance

to rise up the property ladder in one almighty move.

We've got a £100,000 budget.

We'd never be able... We could buy a one-bedroom flat, if that.

So to be able to have a four-bedroom, two en suites, a bathroom,

an island in the kitchen...

We're almost halfway up the ladder from our first step.

But the family know it will take money, not miracles,

to transform this chapel into two comfortable homes.

Our budget to renovate our side of the property is £100,000,

with a contingency of £20,000.

Some people might say that's unrealistic,

but we're going to do the vast majority of the labour ourselves.

We believe that we can actually achieve that.

That's our dream, anyway.

So, all going well, in a year they should be happy neighbours.

That's if the demands of renovation haven't caused any family feuds.

We don't row at all.

We just disagree on, should we use levers and moments

or should we use brute force and ignorance?

HE LAUGHS

Is the usual row, really. The usual falling out. Yeah.

With a joint renovation budget of £200,000,

the finances are set in stone.

But in terms of schedule, are the family living on a wing and a prayer?

The timescale from where we are currently to completion,

well, there's a question.

Twice as long as half the time it'll take

is about the best answer I can give you.

ALL LAUGH

I'm keen to see this space for myself.

How are you all? Good.

You're standing here very proudly.

This is now your pile of bricks, I understand. It is indeed.

How exciting! How mad.

How mad. And all four of you are taking this on.

Yes. And all four of you are going to live here? Yes.

I think this is a first on the programme.

ALL LAUGH

We don't know how long we'll live next to each other!

It's a very bold and ambitious plan, but I'm excited by it.

Can we go inside and have a look? Absolutely. Excellent, lead the way.

Go on, Laura.

This is an absolutely amazing space.

Clearly you've started work on it already, but start at the beginning.

How did you find it, how did all of this come about?

I got a phone call to say we're now proud owners of a chapel.

Which chapel? I had no idea that he'd even looked at this.

What's he done? Shall I kill him now?!

You're going to create two homes out of this, that's the point.

What's the layout, where are you going with this?

This side, because it's got a huge roof,

enables me to create two upper floors instead of one.

Two upper floors?

So you've got ground, first and second.

Yes, this is going to be totally open-plan ground floor. Right.

With open-plan kitchen and utility room,

with a nice, long upper gallery.

Full height to the upper floors,

so we get to see some of these massive beams up there.

These steels, that's where the ceiling is going to be, is it? Yes.

So it's going to be a really high ceiling down here.

And then the two upper floors

are going to be two en-suite bedrooms on the first floor.

Then right up there in the roof space we're going to have

two guest bedrooms with a Jack and Jill bathroom.

So huge project, let's talk about experience.

You guys, am I right in thinking this is your first property?

We hit the ground running with this one.

It's exciting, isn't it? I love learning.

We've googled stuff to try and find out things,

been using sledgehammers and smashing up stuff.

It's been brilliant fun. A real learning curve, isn't it?

So this is about keeping costs down

and doing as much as you can yourselves.

I have to ask, you're very happy all living together, are you?

Once this is done, I see we will live independent lives.

There's no cat flap next door.

There's no connecting door into their home.

We'll live our independent lives as we always have done.

This is an incredible space, I'm very excited for you.

Now let's go through and see the other half,

which is going to be your home.

It's a lot bigger than I thought. From outside, it looked a lot smaller.

Quite a similar space, but not quite as high, is that right?

That's right. Again, you've got the steels in,

but this time, you're not going to have two floors above you,

you're just going to have one, so you are splitting it in two.

We'll have a three-quarter mezzanine. OK.

So we're not blocking off the windows. I see.

Yes, tell me about that, then.

This will be the lounge and the windows will be uninterrupted...

Correct. Light pouring in.

We purposely designed it to pull the floor away

from as many windows as we could. And what about the light?

It feels a bit darker in here than it does in your mum and dad's place.

Are you going to put some more in the roof?

We're having 15 window lights in the roof. 15? Yes.

So the door we just walked through will be sealed up? Yes.

As soon as physically possible.

THEY LAUGH

No interference between the two families. No.

How many bedrooms upstairs? Four.

Four? Yes.

And a bathroom upstairs.

Two en suites and a bathroom. Gosh. We've shoehorned them in.

Managed to get them in there, yeah.

When do you hope you can have

a couple of lovely homes here in this chapel?

Originally... SHE LAUGHS

..it was Christmas. Yeah.

The best thing is we don't have a property that we have to sell.

We're not living in a caravan.

We're in service family accommodation.

That's a really good way of doing it,

so you're sorted for accommodation

and you're also living where you work, is that right?

That's correct.

That's a really healthy situation to be in.

We were never going to be living in a caravan. Really?

Sue wouldn't entertain it. I would, but Sue wouldn't.

I don't do caravans or camping.

So you didn't get the phone call saying,

"I've just bought a caravan?"

No, no. No way.

I'm a five-star lady. Good!

This is a truly awe-inspiring space.

I have real faith in this family's ability to succeed here.

So, I have to say I hugely admire the energy and enthusiasm.

When that simmers away some evenings and things aren't going so well,

what are your main concerns here?

What are the things that just slightly worry you

about this project?

Are we going to run out of energy?

That's... I'm no spring chicken.

Luckily I've got two fit, young youngsters on hand

but that's my biggest concern, are we going to run out of steam?

Is the enthusiasm going to wane?

There's always the unforeseen.

In the military they teach us to expect the unexpected.

We know how to do that.

On this, it's all unexpected because we're not builders. Yeah.

We're learning as we go along.

It will be really good for you to meet a couple who've been through this.

They can tell you what it's like, whether you end up burning out,

how much you should be taking on yourself, how to work as a team.

But also, the building they've got is very similar to yours.

I think there's a lot of inspiration you can take from it,

and they should have some good, old-fashioned advice. Sounds good?

Fantastic. Excellent.

Not every empty building is lucky enough

to attract enthusiastic buyers with such vision.

Across Britain, empty property officers are working tirelessly

to combat the problems associated with derelict buildings.

Dave Carter is one of Enfield's top empty property officers.

In his 12 years on the job,

Dave has personally brought over 600 abandoned abodes back to use.

In Enfield, it's believed there are over 3,000 empty properties,

of which about 500 are a real problem.

It's my job, as an empty property officer,

to try and reduce those numbers to an absolute bare minimum

and get families living in these as soon as possible.

Dave's inspecting a 1930s end of terrace house

that's been attracting a lot of unwanted attention.

Today I'm going to be visiting the house, just to check

whether there are any obvious signs of the property being squatted.

I'll also be looking to see

if there are any signs of antisocial behaviour,

so it will be very interesting to see exactly what I do come across.

When entering an abandoned building for the first time,

Dave has no idea what or who he may find.

I'm a little bit nervous, always a little bit of trepidation

when you approach a property for the first time,

when you think it might be squatted.

There have been times in the past when I've even been chased down the

stairs by squatters with a baseball bat, wondering what I was up to.

Before stepping inside, he has to do his best to assess

the situation based on what he can see from the exterior.

There's things scattered all over the floor.

Just a little bit tired and neglected.

He then checks for signs of a break-in

round the back of the building.

You can see straight away the broken window.

The door's open.

See the bin, overgrown garden. Be careful where I tread, actually.

This place is clearly in a real state

and will need some major work to make it habitable.

Just so sad to see all their possessions just turned upside down.

More evidence of just general clutter.

Downstairs is squatter-free, but upstairs has to be checked as well.

Hello?

Hello?

HE KNOCKS AT DOOR

Nobody there.

Hello?

Right.

So, yeah, obviously whoever's been in here has just gone through

the whole of this room.

There's even a photo, presumably...

"For my Sweetheart."

A wartime photo.

Presumably that was the owner.

That would have meant a lot to him at the time

and now it's just discarded on the floor.

Squatters have clearly been inside, but to find out how recently,

he heads over to one of the neighbours for a chat.

KNOCKS ON DOOR

So you've been having problems once again with the squatters, have you?

Yeah, they're in and out. You think the property is definitely squatted?

Yes. We've seen them going in and out, up to about 20 of them. No! 20?

Yeah, in and out of there. It's really becoming a bit...

unsociable around here. Yes.

You hear them hanging around here at night-time as well outside.

It's frustrating because I've got grandkids... Just hanging around?

Yes. Hanging around the front of your house.

Even in the daytime, you have some of them

hanging around on the corner there.

I don't feel comfortable coming out to try and say anything. No.

To say anything to them.

It's a bit unnerving when it's right on your doorstep.

I'll see what I can do to help. I appreciate that.

I'll try and get it sorted out. OK.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

I've had a good look round the property, it is in a mess.

I need to get it sorted as soon as possible.

The good news is that the squatters aren't there at the minute.

The bad news is that they are in the vicinity, likely to come back.

So I need to get my report in, get the photos as evidence, so the

environmental health can get the house boarded up as soon as possible.

If you're in the market for an empty property,

there are many ways to pick one up.

Talk with local estate agents and auctioneers.

Ask around your family and friends.

Or get in touch with your local council's empty property officer.

Empty buildings come in all shapes and sizes,

and developers need to get creative with the unusual properties

becoming available to them.

One such example is decommissioned Army barracks.

You may not expect to find a military barracks

right in the centre of a town or city,

but historically that's exactly where they were,

to protect the citizens from attack.

I've come to Winchester to find out how the creative use

of a military site has helped provide homes for local families.

Now a stunning development,

historically, the Peninsula Army Barracks

have always been a military site, stretching as far back

as the Romans, and more recently rebuilt by the Victorians.

But 20 years ago, it was finally decommissioned by the MoD

and was on the verge of demolition.

Local architect Hugh Thomas was instrumental in saving

this extraordinary sight and creating these fantastic homes.

What was going to happen to these buildings, what was the future?

One idea was to turn this into a car park.

But the worst thing was that planning permission was given to knock

the whole lot down, most of it down.

So I started a campaign with Save Britain's Heritage

to try and stop this. It took us a whole year.

How many homes have you made out of these buildings, over 100?

Yes, about 135, something like that.

And there's one final piece of the jigsaw, isn't there? There is.

Amazingly, after all these years, since 1998, there is a big chunk

of the bottom of the barracks that never was actually built out.

I've recently got planning permission to finish it off, finish the story.

How does this feel, after all these years working on the site?

Brilliant. I still pinch myself I got away with the whole thing!

THEY LAUGH

The less glamorous section of the barracks is the military jail,

which was on the verge of total ruin and in need of rescuing.

Peter Goldring is the man responsible

for these jailhouse buildings.

Peter, I'm Joe, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too.

You're the proud owner, are you? Indeed. Great.

Can we have a look inside? Certainly, follow me.

For years, Peter and Hugh couldn't agree on what to do with the jail.

But in a last bid to save it,

they came together to unlock the potential of this site.

These are cells, this is an old military jail. Indeed.

It looks in a pretty run-down state now.

Can we just poke our heads through

and have a look at some of the old cells?

You're very welcome. Just over here? Sure.

I'm eager to get a closer look.

And thankfully, these days there's no chance of getting locked in.

This is one of the cells. They're certainly not big, are they? No, no.

Just enough room for a bed. You don't get comfort in the Army. No.

And these windows are original.

That's probably all the light you'd have in a cell here.

This wouldn't be the door, no. This wouldn't be a door,

and the next one wouldn't have been a door either, no.

It seems a big ask to make small cells into very nice homes,

but let's have a look at your plans

and see what you've got in store for people.

OK.

These two are clearly taking no prisoners

when it comes to creating these new properties.

Hugh, this mountain of paper are your plans for the site.

Talk me through how you're going to transform this, what's the idea?

In total there'll be five dwellings on the site.

Three will be three bedrooms and two will be four. It'll be gorgeous.

So, just to get my head around it, the cell we were just looking in,

that's actually going to be part of a sitting room... It is now, yes.

..for the big house on the end, that's going to be four bedrooms.

Then here, you're going to tack onto the end of this building to make a three-bedroom house. Yes.

Another one is going to come around here, there'll be an arch,

but you'll have another three-bedroom here. That's right.

And this is all going to be a courtyard in the middle here. Yes, a courtyard.

It's a great use of this space, isn't it?

It's exactly what we should be doing here. It's a very, very... It's not an overuse.

It's an absolutely efficient use of space, it's really good.

There's no denying the wasted potential here over the years.

It's a shame it's taken so long to get plans to bring this building

back to life again, but finally it does look like that's happened.

Things are moving, there's some great ideas here

for three- and four-bedroom family homes, and in that way, hopefully they can

make the best of these buildings, maintain and keep the history alive

and create some wonderful homes for future generations.

It's not only architects and developers

who are turning historic sites into homes.

Up and down the country,

there are plenty of people who are bringing their own ideas to life.

In West Sussex, retired couple Ray and Cathy Foster

wanted to get back to their roots

when they purchased this Grade II listed farmhouse

that had sat empty for ten years.

I was brought up on a farm, so one of the points that drew us

to this property was the land that was attached.

It was just the feel as we walked around.

Although ceilings were falling down, wallpaper was falling off.

It felt like home even when it was in that state.

The house was in need of total renovation.

The walls of the kitchen were in such a bad state

that they had to be rebuilt.

So there were tiles that had sunk,

and leaving daylight through...meant that the roof had to come right off,

and one particular builder we had round, he came and said,

"Your building is dying.

"It's dying." And...

..we just wanted to bring it back to life.

Working with a listed building presents its own unique challenges.

The Grade II listings meant that we couldn't change

any part of the old house.

We had to stick with single-glazed windows,

all the outside had to be kept the same,

we had to have a lot of windows

renovated to give the original look that the house was built.

And like in so many old houses,

there were hidden gems to be unearthed.

One of the things about the history that we found

was that there was a possibility

that there was an inglenook fireplace.

Now, this, when we came, was just a small opening,

so one day I got the jemmy out and started ripping it out.

I think that was the most exciting thing,

to actually find this inglenook fireplace. Hm.

After an epic renovation, this couple finally got their dream home.

I don't think there is a room that I like best, I just love it all.

I love the orangery, to be able to sit in there

and look out over the fields and see the birds. Love the kitchen,

love the breakfast room, love it all, love looking out into the garden.

We love the snug -

when you light the wood burner and lives up to its name,

all nice and snug.

So, it's a nice, cosy room.

Ray and Cathy have created not just a home, but a real legacy.

It's now a house that I leave for future generations.

It's investing in the future,

it's giving people the benefit of this property.

Back in Wiltshire, I am with the Zamans,

two generations who've clubbed together to buy

an old Methodist chapel to turn into two properties.

To help inspire them,

I'm introducing them to a couple who've completed their own

minor miracle, turning their old chapel into a comfortable home.

I think you can immediately see why I brought you here.

What do you make of that? Wow. It's amazing. That is beautiful.

While looking for a home with real spirit,

Sally and David Yarnton purchased their chapel at auction in 2006.

For many years, we liked the idea of finding an old property

that you could, you know, do something to to restore it,

that had character, that was maybe a blank canvas,

that was in such a state that you could really bring it back

and get some of the life back into it.

And, you know, this was an empty church which had so much character

that we could add our own feel and touch to it.

Sally took it upon herself to project manage the restoration

and picked up some extremely useful tips along the way.

A good piece of advice would be to find the right tradesmen.

Particularly with an old building,

you need to be able to work within the confines of restricted areas.

I mean, you've got to fit a floor around some odd beam work.

I mean, we're working in a building that's been here for years,

you've got to be sympathetic to that and work within

the confines of that, so you need someone that understands it.

It's clear this chapel was a real labour of love.

When you've put the work in yourselves,

when you've actually designed it,

you have a lot more connection, you put a lot more blood and sweat

into it, you've seen it from when it was in its ruins

and you've seen it grow and develop and it's almost like a child,

I suppose, where you take pride in seeing the finished product.

I love our church. I love our house.

It's our home and we have got so much pleasure out of living here.

Mm.

Hello. Welcome. Sally, how are you? Very well. Can we come in?

Come through. Thank you.

Guys, it's breathtaking as you walk in. It's an incredible place.

But I know it wasn't always like this,

so just talk us through it from the start.

Just how run-down was it and how much work have you had to do here?

We've had an amazing amount of work. We started in October 2006 and built

for six months, and prior to that it was about a year in planning.

When you come into this space, what do you make of this ceiling height?

That's what we're talking about in yours, aren't we? Having these ceilings.

I think this is probably going to be about the same challenge

that we have, ceiling heights. Let's talk about light.

We have windows on two sides and then we have the church side

on the third side, and on the fourth side, it's very dark wood.

We're trying to come up with a solution to get light into the darker areas downstairs.

That is an issue with churches, unfortunately,

you do have limited light, because you're working within the probably

Gothic windows, which I assume you have, and they're very narrow.

So, we had old leadlight windows, which we had taken out

and then we had double-glazed put in.

If you can get through a wall and get an extra door in with

lots of glass in it, that's really helpful as well.

That's a good tip, so shifting light around within the internal structure.

Glass in doors, even for internal doors, could be considered. Yes.

Cutting across the windows, I see that's always the challenge.

What was your compromise there?

You've brought the ceiling just short of the windows.

Explain the thinking there.

Well, I mean, when you see where it stops, you can see that we have

a major stained-glass window, so we didn't want to interrupt that.

To me, it's a piece of art,

and when you go upstairs,

you can also see the whole of the window as well.

So you get to be able to view that window from upstairs

and downstairs, and also, it lets a little bit of light in,

not as much as normal light, but at night-time,

we have a spotlight outside so that it shines on that and

lights it up at night, so from inside you actually get a beautiful picture.

Oh, that's a great idea, what do you think of that?

Fantastic. That could work.

Great, well, let's continue our tour, shall we? Absolutely.

Terrific. Sally, lead the way. Let's go.

Hopefully there's some truly divine inspiration here

for the Zaman family.

Is this what you expected? That's amazing. This is what I want.

Outstanding. What a fantastic space.

So, you've made this into a living room,

but you've also got a kind of study and a little snug bit there.

Yes. It's an amazing area.

We wanted to use the beams, we had them sandblasted,

we really wanted to make this a special area.

What do you think about the openness of it and the height of it?

I love it. This roof lends itself to what you've achieved, Sally.

This is how I see my woodwork, my timber, cleaned up,

on show.

The history of the building. Yeah. Sally, you were the project manager.

Yes. We actually had a main builder and he had his team

that worked with him, so we had a cabinet-maker, he had a roofer,

someone that did all of the pointing,

so he had his own tradesmen.

He had to keep on track with it, cos she was also ordering all of the raw materials that they needed

and things like the timber for flooring,

had to make sure that was delivered in time.

But it also had to be delivered ahead of time,

because it had to stay in the building for a while to cure.

That seems to be where the teamwork's going to come in,

because even if you're not all hands on,

all the time, someone's got to be thinking about materials

and getting the best price and going out...

I think this is where Sue comes in. Yes.

Well, you're still smiling about it, that's a good sign. Yeah.

And one thing we didn't talk about earlier...

We talked a lot about natural light. There's other kinds of light.

I don't know what you think of this, but looking around the room,

there's an incredibly sort of varied

and quite inventive approach to lighting here.

Using the white ceiling to reflect the light, as well,

seems like a great idea. Yeah.

It softens things a bit, rather than having direct light down on you...

sort of becomes very harsh.

Whereas having it, as you say, reflecting off the ceiling

makes it much warmer, and also having uplights highlight a lot of the work.

Any final advice? I mean, it's a long project.

Just, you know, how do you keep sane through these things,

you know, how do you keep going?

I just think, it's your home, you've bought it because you love it

and you'll create something that you'll really appreciate in the long-term.

You know, if you work well together and you work as a team,

you'll have something amazing, so good luck.

Where do we start? What do you make of that?

I mean, it's quite a place, isn't it? Has today be helpful?

Very helpful, yeah, yeah.

I think I can see more what mine's going to be like when it's finished.

What about you, Roy? I think David and Sally have done a fantastic job.

It's been very, very useful.

And although I had in my head what I want to achieve,

physically seeing something like this is worth a weight in gold.

And, Paul, how did you find it?

It's very heartening to see the finished product

and to know that our empty property is transitioning

through what has now become an empty home

and can be a very lived-in home and a very successful project.

I'm so pleased that Roy, Sue, Paul and Laura

could see this place today.

There really won't be many better examples of how you can turn

a full-on chapel into a really lovely, cosy home.

This place is just full of inspiration.

I know that means those four are going away brimming

with ideas about windows, about ceiling heights, lighting designs.

You name it, they've seen it here.

So, it's been perfect for the stage they're at

and I've just got a great feeling now. They're going to go forward

and create these two wonderful homes from their very special chapel.

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