James, 48, Lindsey, 41, and their four children, aged between seven and 10, quickly discovered the quirks of living in such a vast and unusual property, along with the eye-watering running costs.
But after becoming engrossed in The Traitors, now in its fourth series, the pair had an idea to turn their home into a fully immersive experience for fans of the show and earn some extra income.
The couple married in 2015 and wanted to leave London for a bigger home by the sea, having spent holidays in Whitstable.
While viewing “normal houses”, they kept being drawn back to the former care home.
“We made an offer on it that was lower than the asking price, and they accepted it, which was great,” James said.
“But then we found ourselves moving into an old people’s home with our four children.
“We found quite a few memorials in the garden. They are quite eerie as a lot of them were crosses that do look alarmingly like graves.
“More alarming, we did find some bones, but I think they belong to foxes or things like that.
“It certainly had an energy about it.”
The Gordons bought the “creepy” former care home in Tankerton, Whitstable, for £750,000 in 2019
The home still has a lift from when elderly residents lived there. Former downstairs bedrooms have been turned into living spaces, while the kitchen was previously a day room for elderly residents.
The couple carried out much of the work themselves, but the costs of running such a large house soon became apparent.
“We’ve ended up with an enormous manor house in the middle of Whitstable,” James said.
“The council tax and the electricity bills are big.
“When a light bulb goes out, it’s one light bulb out of about 200, so we had to think of ways to make it work for us so we could live in it and enjoy it.
The Gordons converted a former care home on the Kent coast into a six-bed family home
“We wanted to enjoy the house because we think it’s a really fun house.
“The kids love it because it’s such a great place for hide and seek.
“We have big parties here and we even have local people come and stay the night just because it is fun to stay in the house together.
“So we thought, let’s open it up to other people.”
They began letting the property on Airbnb in 2024 and are now looking to take things a step further with The Traitors game.
James Gordon says it is a luxury experience as well as a fun game
“There has always been an element of the Addams family about us because we live in such a big house with such a big family,” James said.
“And let’s face it, the house is a little bit creepy.
“So when we started watching The Traitors, we enjoyed it and got stuck into it.
“But it was the Celebrity Traitors with Alan Carr that really set our cogs turning.”
James has a background in reality TV – including devising games for housemates on Big Brother – and now works in immersive entertainment.
James Gordon says his children love the six-bed Whitstable home as it’s great for hide and seek
Along with Lindsey, a commercial actress, they began to design a two-day overnight experience inspired by the show.
It costs £2,500 and is aimed at groups of nine or more. The house sleeps up to 15 people.
Guests are greeted by “the lady of the house” and a Polaroid photograph of each participant is taken and displayed on a wall.
“We have only done it for two nights because after that, people might start really falling out,” James said.
“We have Traitor-ified it by amping up the spookiness, turning down the dimmable switches and making it as fun, as camp and high horror as possible with candlelight.”
The “immersive” Traitors experience in Whitstable costs £2,500 and is aimed at groups of nine or more
James says it is also a luxury, Poirot-esque experience.
“There’ll be sparkling white wine available to our guests and delicious food,” he said.
While The Traitors famously features a turret where plots are hatched, James says their version required some creativity.
“Unlike television, where they all stay in separate hotels, all of our murderers will live among us,” he explained.
“We have devised a way for those murderers to communicate with each other where the others don’t know what’s going on.
“So it’s a metaphorical turret where they’re able to communicate with each other.”
James Gordon says the Whitstable house “has an energy about it”
Hidden speakers are installed throughout the house and some rooms contain screens used to relay secret messages.
Challenges take place both inside the home and beyond, including trips to nearby Ales and Antiques on Tankerton High Street to hunt for clues.
The game will end with the losers completing the final forfeit – a swim in the icy Thames Estuary.
The building, dating back to 1930, was originally a doctor’s surgery and home before being converted into a care home in 1996.
Locals still refer to it as “Bunny’s House”, named after a former resident.
How the Traitors experience is being advertised on social media. Picture: House of Deceit / Instagram
“He used to sit, either lean out of his window or sit in the front garden and introduce himself to anyone who was going by,” James said.
“He had a huge sense of mischief and I sometimes wonder if his spirit still lives on because there is a lot of mischief about the house.”
