Latest news with #Blaencwm
Daily Mail
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Homes Under The Hammer star Martin Roberts forced to deny he wants to turn renovated pub into a lap-dancing club
has been forced to deny he is turning a dilapidated pub into a lap dancing club amid budgeting and building woes on the renovation project. The Homes Under The Hammer presenter has previously admitted to struggling with the transformation of Hendrewen Hotel in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. Martin has been hit with a string of glitches since shelling out a reported £200,000 for the pub and budgeting £500,000 for the makeover - and work has been ongoing at the site for more than two years. But the 61-year-old said the delays have sent the local rumour mill spinning - with suggestions he has given up on the project in the village of Blaencwm and is planning something very different to a pub renovation. Martin said: 'As things go on, rumours start to get rife so we have to put paid to them now - one is that it's being sold, but I am not selling it, I'm not turning it into a lap dancing club and I'm not turning it into flats! He said: 'The biggest challenge has been getting it back together, all structurally sound, and it had 150 years of stuff to strip away. It took a lot longer than we thought it would. 'One wall was held up by a piece of steel, which was supported by a bit of wood, which was supported by a final bit of wood that was holding up everything - and it was a rotten piece of timber about an inch thick!' Martin said many of the delays had been caused by issues around planning permission and ensuring other regulations were met as the building was stripped back. He says: 'It's not the doing it, it's not the ideas, it's not the enthusiasm and having a great team - it's often the extra things you have to do in terms of planning and regulations because it's going to be a place of public use. 'It means you have to adhere to a thousand billion more rules and regulations and it quite rightly covers everything and it takes forever. 'It's frustrating because I wanted to be further along but it has to be done. But we will get there.' Martin insisted he wants the hotel to have individually-themed bedrooms based on popular TV shows such as Doctor Who or Top Gear and even Homes Under the Hammer, and wants the restaurant's food to rival top eateries elsewhere. He said: 'I want it to be somewhere special, not be over-priced but it will be a place where you'll want to come for a special occasion and I think the Valleys deserve that. 'Why shouldn't it be as good as anything you find in Cardiff, London or The Cotswolds? I want people to walk through the door and go, 'I can't believe this is here, because you could be in Bourton-On-The-Water!' 'I will put in lots of memorabilia which I've gathered, but also decorated in [a particular] style. 'So the Fawlty Towers [room] will have wallpaper peeling off, shelves that are breaking, flock bedspreads and very old fashioned fittings. The 61-year-old said the delays have sent the local rumour mill spinning - but denied he was selling the property or turning it into a lap dancing club 'I've actually got a life-sized cut out of Tom Baker - my era - and I'm currently negotiating on buying a 1970s Dalek. 'The only good thing about any delays is that it means I came up with extra ideas, like the bedrooms. I didn't think of that at the start. It's a big project, there's lots to think about. 'I might give some of the bedrooms to one interior designer to play with. I've been collecting lots of relevant memorabilia and collectables and we've got some great designs already, but I'd quite like to give younger people a chance to come in and do the Doctor Who bedroom, do the Question of Sport bedroom with a little bit of their spin on it..' Martin has formerly admitted that he didn't tell wife Kirsty about the 'accidental' purchase of the pub - situated near to his farmhouse in South Wales - until after it was complete. The purchase came just after Martin suffered a health scare a year earlier in 2022 when his heart, kidney and liver failed. He was hospitalised with chest pains that he mistook for long COVID, but doctors told Martin he was suffering from pericardial effusion, a build-up of fluid in the structure around the heart. Martin had to have surgery and was ultimately 'given a second chance at life' thanks to the incredible work of surgeons. The renovation will be documented in a ten-part series called Oops! I Bought A Pub, which will be shown on ITV next year - or whenever the pub finally opens.
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Homes Under The Hammer star Martin Roberts, 61, admits he's 'failed on every level' on major refurbishment project - after getting a 'second chance at life' following health scare
Martin Roberts has admitted he's 'failed on every level' in his attempt to turn around an out-of-use pub in the Rhondda Valley. The Homes Under The Hammer star, 61, purchased the Hendrewen Hotel in Blaencwm, Rhondda, in 2023 and planned to inject £500,000 to give the boozer a complete makeover. Situated not far from Martin's farmhouse in South Wales, the renovation expert wanted to bring bark a spark to a community which had 'lost their heart'. He'd estimated that the half-a-million would be enough for works to be complete in around two years, but after that exact amount of time, the makeover is far from finished. In fact the eight-bedroom property looks the exact same, with the presenter admitting he's 'failed on every level'. Martin told The Sun: 'For a man who spends all his time telling people to make sure they stick to their budgets and timescales, I have failed on every single level. 'I'm still smiling but, oh my word, what a challenge it's been, I'll be honest, it's the first commercial property I've ever done. 'There have been lots of residential houses and flats, but commercial properties have a lot more complications, I'd say we are 60 per cent there.' One of the many hold-ups which he has encountered has been dealing with planners who insist he prepares for possible floods. Helping Martin power through the many obstacles he's overcome to get to this point have been a host of young locals. The presenter has a group Welsh teens aged between 15 to 17 working with his tradesmen, learning various practical skills they can use after school. Given his boozer is located in one of the country's most deprived areas, Martin hopes he can give the children 'a step up the ladder' and help them gain employment. With the pub now months away from completion, the former I'm A Celeb star is aiming to have around 30 locals employed when it 'hopefully' opens later this year. Martin is designing the Hendrewen so that each of its eight bedrooms has a different theme, all centred around television. He's planning to have a Fawlty Towers room, A Question of Sport room and - of course - an offering centred around Homes Under The Hummer - a show's he's presented for more than two decades. Martin purchased the pub in South Wales after suffering a health scare a year earlier in 2022 when his heart, kidney and liver failed. He was hospitalised with chest pains that he mistook for long COVID, but doctors told Martin he was suffering from pericardial effusion, a build-up of fluid in the structure around the heart. He had to have surgery and was ultimately 'given a second chance at life' thanks to the incredible work of surgeons. In December 2024 Martin issued a worrying update on his health, revealing he fears he doesn't have much longer left. Speaking to MailOnline, he said that he still gets twinges in his chest that cause him to panic. He explained that he doesn't 'know how long he has left' and is trying to do as much good in the world as possible. 'The physical side of things took a lot longer than we thought to get around,' the father-of-two said. 'I still get twinges and every single time I get a twinge in my chest, I panic. As anyone who has had any kind of problems with their heart would attest to it.' Martin continued: 'It sends you into a flurry of worry because they only sort of dribble out these stories afterwards. 'It was like I went to see the the consultant who did the emergency operation, and I said to him, "so how long would I have survived?" 'He said, "well, you probably wouldn't have made it through the night. So it was just as well I was on duty... you probably had maybe two or three hours to live." 'That was two to three hours from dying and not being here and not seeing the kids anymore and not fulfilling all my ambitions and doing all the things I want to do. 'So that's sort of the psychological side of that. It takes a lot longer to get over than the physical side. 'I was told I need to slow down and take things easy and all that kind of stuff, and I've gone a completely other way. 'This is why I've got this project in Wales where I'm renovating a pub, for the community, and we're using local kids to do the work and bringing kids who are disengaged and disadvantaged, giving them a chance to get construction skills. 'Just doing lots of good. I don't know how much time I've got left, so I just want to do as much as I possibly can to help.
