This old abandoned church became a stunning cafe

For Alannah Hovard and her partner David Cowgill, turning an 80-year-old Catholic church into a cafe was the holiest of renovations.

The couple purchased St Columbkille’s, in the northern New South Wales town of Broadwater, in 2009.

Although the couple had no hospitality experience, they knew the deconsecrated church’s Pacific Highway-location was also ideal for a cafe.

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Alannah, a 60-year-old archivist and history-lover, also wanted a place to display her pottery collection.

Our Daily Bread now operates as a cafe seven days per week but it was quite a project the couple embarked on before they opened the doors.

The former church as it is today. Picture: Sophia Auld

The first step was getting approval for the renovation, which took 18 months. Next came 18 months of physical labour.

The building hadn’t been used since 2003, Alannah says, and was “completely derelict”.

She explains that no single job was particularly difficult, but “when you look at the work we’ve done, everything’s on a grand scale, and everything takes a lot longer to do [than expected].”

Internal work included adding a loft and stairs and building the cafe. Picture: Sophia Auld

There was peeling paint, broken glass, and no water. They worked daily with a young man who sanded the building back to bare boards, while they painted. Any intact glass was moved to the front of the building, and similar glass sourced for the back.

Underneath, they replaced 100 ant caps, which involved lifting every pier. About six piers needed repositioning, but, despite the building’s age, Alannah says it is very sturdy.

“[The area] is a floodplain, and the soil here is sand, so it’s a really sturdy foundation for a big building like this.”

Town water and septic had to be installed. Internal work included adding a loft and stairs, and building the cafe.

They have also added a 100sqm verandah, toilets, and a parents’ room.

Our Daily Bread cafe now operates seven days per week. Picture: Sophia Auld

One of the biggest jobs was sealing a leak from one cracked roof tile.

“The church is too big for a domestic roof tiler, and too small for a commercial company to come and do it,” Alannah says.

After being quoted $60,000, they did it themselves. From inside the sanctuary, they took scaffolding to the roof, nailed it to the rafters, and removed seven ceiling boards to get to the tile. It took a whole weekend.

Alannah says that employing someone to do the renovations would have been easier, but the cost was prohibitive.

The couple worked daily with a young man who sanded the building back to bare boards. Picture: Our Daily Bread Cafe/Facebook.

“I would say we’ve done a million-dollar renovation if you were paying for someone to do [it],” she explains.

“I’m not a young woman, so things like doing this heavy work are quite difficult. But you just do it.”

While there is always more to do, Alannah says restoring the building has been gratifying, especially when nuns from the former church visit.

“They love coming in here, they love what we have done, and they love the name of the cafe,” she says.

“Just to [hear] their love for this old building and know that we have done something to it and made it a public space again, that’s probably the most important thing to me.”