Customer Story - Asare-Joy
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CUSTOMER STORY “It makes the house even more like something a James Bond villain would inhabit!” HOW A NUCLEAR WAR BUNKER WAS TURNED INTO A £700K ECO-HOME A family from London’s suburbs have swapped their bungalow for a Cold War nuclear bunker in the West Country with a futuristic homelift to travel between floors in. Richard, 47, and Elizabeth Asare-Joy, 55, lived in Sidcup for over a decade with their two children Carl, 21, and Tanya, 20, with Elizabeth’s mother, Pam,73, living next door. But they decided the time was right to pack up the whole family and move to Somerset for a complete change of lifestyle. Despite being on the lookout for another, larger bungalow, Richard came across what he thought was the perfect property for sale online – a five-bedroom timber-clad eco-house converted from a Cold War bunker. Previously, the site housed a pre-fabricated Royal Observer Corps (ROC) centre, used to spot German planes during WWII, but this was demolished when a new bunker was built in 1963. This new bunker was just one of 29 stations where volunteers had spent 30 years planning for the eventuality of nuclear annihilation. The survivors would have helped rebuild a post-atomic Britain in the event of a nuclear attack from Russia. Thankfully, the sprawling station never served its intended purpose and has been put to novel use instead. After laying derelict following closure in 2001 and being broken into many times, the local council gave developers planning permission to build four homes on the plot on the south side of Yeovil. Converted by the previous owners in 2009, the main building, Observatory House, sits behind three terraced houses and is almost unrecognisable as a nuclear bunker. It has a staggering 8,000 square feet of living space over four floors including five bedrooms, three reception rooms and a large gym. The Asare-Joys snapped it up this year for just under

“We love it," says Richard. “We were looking for a lifestyle change and were originally looking for another bungalow as we liked having everything on one level or a house with an annex for Pam, but we couldn't find one we liked. But then I discovered Observatory House online and I said to my wife, we've got to view this. “I didn't know anything about the house's history until the estate agent mentioned it and took us down to the bunker. Then I started reading up about it as it really piqued my interest. As soon as we viewed the property I knew it would be perfect for us. So we've ended up...