Homes Under The Hammer's Martin Roberts gives shock update on hotel project, admitting ‘I have failed on every level'
WITH total honesty, Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts admits: '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.'
Two years ago, the property expert showed The Sun around his own DIY project to turn a run-down Welsh village pub into a top tourist attraction.
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And just like he does on the hit property show, I asked: 'What is your timescale?'
Back then, in spring 2023, Martin was convinced it would take just two years and around half a million pounds to rebuild the Hendrewen Hotel in the Rhondda Valley.
So here we are, two years later, and on the outside, the eight-bedroom boozer looks . . . exactly the same.
Martin, 61, who has witnessed more than 3,000 property renovations on his BBC daytime show, says: '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 of the way there.'
But when I ask how soon we can expect the pub to be open, Martin hedges his bets and shrugs: 'I think it's going to come together really quickly in the final few months.
'I'm hopeful for Halloween but Christmas would be good. If not, in time for Easter.'
One of the many hold-ups, according to Martin, has been dealing with planners who insist he makes preparations in case the pub in the former mining village of Blaencwm is hit by a once-in-a-century flood.
Homes Under the Hammer's Martin Roberts announces new series that's world's away from beloved BBC show
He says: 'We've got to do it right, and we will do it right, but unfortunately that means there's lots of hoops to jump through.'
It is only three years since Martin was minutes from death and needed an emergency heart op.
Doctors who carried out the surgery to drain fluid from the sac surrounding his heart told him in future to choose the easy life and avoid unnecessary stress.
That is advice he does not seem to have followed.
He could have spent his spare time living at his Rhondda Valley farmhouse — which he bought after falling in love with the area — and enjoying the stunning scenery which is popular with mountain bikers.
Instead he decided to seize life and bought the pub lock, stock and barrel — without telling his wife Kirsty.
My head is going, 'What the absolute bleep have you done here?'
Every single wall was cock-eyed, every single window was falling down. Add to that the small matter of bats nesting in the leaking roof.
Martin Roberts
In fact, father-of-two Martin thought he had kept the purchase a complete secret, but he reveals: 'My cleaner rang me up one day and said, 'Have you bought the Hendrewen?'
'It turns out her auntie was in the queue at Asda and the woman behind was saying, 'That Martin Roberts has bought the Hendrewen'.
'It's just hysterical because as far as I was concerned I hadn't told anybody, but it was being discussed in Asda.'
Martin is making a ten-part documentary series called Oops! I Bought A Pub, which will be shown on ITV next year — or whenever the pub finally opens.
But he has also given The Sun an exclusive peek at his architect's visualisations of how the pub will look when the work is finally done — including a wacky upside-down Rolls-Royce suspended from the ceiling in the dining area.
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As well as a new bar and restaurant, there will be eight bedrooms, all named after hit TV shows.
Martin says: 'When I was a travel journalist I probably stayed in hundreds of hotels and often they all looked the same.
'The ones I remember most are those where the rooms felt individual.
"So in my hotel I wanted to create rooms that had an individual feel.
'Then I woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly thought, why don't I theme them around what I know and what I'm known for, which is television.
'Each room is themed around a legendary TV show. Obviously we're going to have a Homes Under The Hammer room with lots of memorabilia and funny stuff from the 20 years of the show.
'We're going to have a Doctor Who room, which is very science fiction-y.
'Next Stereophonics'
'A Fawlty Towers room where the light fittings are broken, the wallpaper is hanging off, beds are going to be very creaky and lots of quotes from Fawlty Towers on the walls.
'A Question Of Sport room will have lots of sports memorabilia.
'There will also be a Top Of The Pops room, an Antiques Roadshow room, a Planet Earth room and one that is a tribute to Top Gear.
'I've been collecting things from car boot sales, flea markets and online for the last two years. Now I've got lots of TV memorabilia so these rooms can be decorated in the style of different telly programmes. It's going to be great.'
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When the Hendrewen Hotel does finally open it will employ around 30 locals in one of the most deprived areas in Europe.
Teenage students on catering and hospitality management courses will get practical experience working in the pub and in the hotel.
Martin says: 'They'll get a chance to run a real-world place. We're going to have a teaching kitchen where celebrity chefs will come along and pass on their cookery skills.
'We're also putting in a stage with lots of musical instruments, which the locals will be able to come and use.
'And we'll have visiting musicians coming along, teaching musical skills to local kids. We might discover the next Stereophonics.'
He also has a team of teens aged 15 to 17 working with his tradesmen, learning the skills to be plasterers, carpenters, electricians and plumbers.
Martin says: 'By working in the pub, these kids are getting a massive step up the ladder. A lot of their lives have been transformed.
'We've had kids come off drugs. We've had kids who wouldn't get up out of bed in the mornings who are now arriving early to work because they're enjoying it so much.
'These kids have been told by the schools that they're rubbish. They come in, we give them a paintbrush or a trowel and say, 'There's a wall, you've got to work on this'. We teach them, and they walk away, heads held high, a belief in themselves has returned.
'They also walk away with a CSCS card, an industry qualification which shows they've got the safety experience to work on a building site.
'If one day they say working with me was a turning point in their life, I'll be thrilled.
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'Village lost its heart'
'Some of the youngsters have given up drugs. We have one lad who struggled to communicate because of a really strong stammer, but he's grown in confidence.
'Now he won't stop talking and his stammer has diminished, which is great to see.
'I was three hours away from death, so I am even more driven to do things, not to make me money — because it's certainly not doing that — but to do some good, and to change lives.
'Because that's what you'll be remembered for, not for having a million pounds in the bank.'
He adds: 'Bear in mind that some families around this area have generations of unemployment. It's like breaking a cycle and the kids get to see the joys of working.'
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And Martin admits there are still months of hard graft ahead. He says: 'I've broken every single one of my rules!
'I have been driven by my heart. I made the classic error of going, 'It's a little pub, it closed at the start of lockdown, and the village has lost its heart and it needs me'.
'At the same time, my head is going, 'What the absolute bleep have you done here?' Every single wall was cock-eyed, every single window was falling down. Add to that the small matter of bats nesting in the leaking roof.
'It has ups and downs. I still have days when I really struggle with my health.
'This is the thing that just keeps me going.
'I've got people relying on me and I won't let them down. I'm not going to give up.'
The last episode of Martin's programme will be the hotel's grand opening.
He has already booked the world- famous Treorchy Male Choir and a big-name female celebrity.
He says: 'I am absolutely supersizing it for the opening.
'The Valleys will have never seen anything like it."
And there's light at the end of his tunnel too...
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THE end is in sight for Martin's other fix-me-up project in the Welsh Valleys.
His hotel in Blaencwm sits at one end of an incredible two-mile railway tunnel that has been closed off for more than 60 years.
Martin is patron of the campaign to reopen the tunnel, which links the Rhondda and Afan Valleys, and turn it into a major tourist attraction.
When it reopens it will be the longest all-year-round-use tunnel in the world for cyclists and walkers.
Last week Railway Paths, a charity that restores old railway infrastructure, became a partner in the Rhondda Tunnel, which was used to transport coal from mines in the Valleys to Swansea docks.
The £2million restoration could be open in two years.
Martin says: 'Now all we want is for the Department for Transport to give us the tunnel. It's not going to cost the UK or the Welsh governments anything.
'The partnership with Railway Paths is a marriage made in heaven.
'This could be the vital step to finally making our dreams and hopes a reality.
'Being the longest continually open walking and cycling tunnel in the world will attract visitors from all around the globe to this area.'
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