It had more than 300 pigeons living in its rafters with a hole in the roof that spanned from the top to bottom when owner Jelena Van Wieren bought it four years ago - but this iconic venue in the Valleys has had a huge makeover.
And what a transformation The Cardiff Arms Bistro has had. Sleek, stylish and contemporary, the boutique hotel and restaurant has been more then restored to its former glory - in fact it's never looked this good before.
The boutique hotel now has 15 rooms, all decked out with luxury double beds and all the amenities you could want or need. Some rooms even have a full sized bath tub to soak all your troubles away.
Some of the rooms look out over Treorchy's award winning high street that scooped up high street of the year at the Great British High Street Awards whilst other rooms have the privilege of looking out over the beautiful Valleys mountains (did I mention I might be a biased).
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Walk through the black-as-coal doors, that pay homage to the rich mining history of the Rhondda, and you'll soon see rooms that are light and airy - making it the perfect place for a weekend getaway or somewhere to kick back and relax.
The rooms all follow a similar industrial theme with design features added to the rooms which include reclaimed wood and bricks from the former pub to create beautiful features in the newly refurbished rooms, with exposed brick in some of the showers and old wood used to make the wardrobes.
Although anyone booking a room won't stay too long upstairs, when the smell of delicious food from the the bistro below hits their nostrils - especially their charcoal fired pizza menu.
Owner Jelena, 46, said: "I'm so happy and proud to see it all finished, it's been a journey but I'm so happy it's done. I can't wait to have the first guests in."
The former Cardiff Arms was a real gentleman's pub back in the day that local men used to congregate in most nights but a Friday night particularly. The Cardiff Arms on a Friday was a ritual, at least it was in my grandparents day. I'm told that the smoke haze that filled the air in the bar area can still be seen in many of my older relatives minds, that was until smoking was banned in pubs back in 2007. The former owners of the Cardiff Arms looked after the huge pub for a number of years before Jelena bought it to transform.
When Jelena picked up the keys and set foot in the Cardiff Arms for the first time she realised the mammoth project she was about to undertake. There were holes in the roof that you could see from two floors down, the place was quite literally falling apart.
Over the next few years it took much more time and money than anticipated to renovate the building due to hidden costs and the extent of damage done to the property, the building needed all new structural support, and the roof alone took a whole year to complete.
Jelena said: "It would have cost less money and time to have ripped it all down and started again, but it was important to me to keep the iconic building the same."
Throughout the pandemic the Cardiff Arms Bistro like other businesses in the hospitality sector were forced to close. This meant that money was tight which meant renovations of the hotel came to a grinding halt. With the pandemic affecting all aspects of all our lives, it wasn't until November 2020 when work eventually started to transform what was being used to store 'junk' and 'rubbish' in to 15 luxury hotel rooms in the heart of Treorchy High Street.
The pandemic was even harder for Jelena as her husband and two children live in Amsterdam full-time. While she undertook this huge project and in normal circumstances her family would have travelled to the Rhondda twice a year during school holidays, Covid also meant that she wasn't able to see her family for eight months.
Jelena, who originally hails from Estonia, had always been interested in property, over the past 15 years she had built up quite the impressive portfolio before flipping a few houses with a partner in the Rhondda Cynon Taf area but transforming a bistro and hotel was always her dream.
"It is a dream come true, it's been difficult times with lockdown and not being able to see my husband and children for eight months at the worst point.
"This is my dream, I kept going over the last five years through financial difficulties and now I'm realising that dream," she said.
Jelena, who has lived in Rhondda for around four years, said: "The people here are so supportive, as well as businesses and the council, they have all helped to make this in to what it is, I couldn't have done it without them all."
Although Jelena doesn't plan on moving back to Amsterdam just yet but hopefully when the hotel and other projects are fully operational she can take a bit of a back seat and head back home to her family and come back to the Rhondda to visit.
With bookings coming in fast, the Cardiff Arms Bistro hotel is set to have its official opening in the new year but is already taking bookings for over the festive period.
If you've got friends or family visiting over the Christmas period and beyond and you converted your spare room to a home office during the pandemic, don't panic as they now have somewhere to stay.
Over the past five years of renovations, Jelena had some financial difficulties and had to ask for financial support from investors and friends across the world - including the USA and Canada - she said: "No banks or investors wanted to invest in Treorchy at that time."
She said that none of this would have been possible had it not been for her incredible builders, Yuri Fonta and his team at Fonta development, she said: "There was 11 guys working 11 hour days to get this ready, I couldn't have done it without them, they were amazing."
Darren Summers, general manager, said: "I've always worked in workmen's clubs in the Rhondda, to see this place gradually come together has been amazing."
Jelena added that Pen y Cymoedd Farm and Rhondda Cynon Taf Council had been outstanding with their support.
The plans for the family friendly bistro do not stop there. Plans are already in the works for a distillery due to be opening in the Spring next year, and in the garden area plans are in motion for a function room for hire.
