Couple’s amazing Dr Who-tel!

WHO would stay in a place like this?

The Tardis is fine for travelling through time but if David Tennant needs a break from battling aliens, he’d feel at home in this new hotel where he could enjoy a pint at the ‘floating’ bar!

Owners Huw and Beth Roberts wanted the Gwesty Cymru on Aberystwyth seafront to live up to 21st Century expectations.

So they turned to Cardiff’s Specialist Models and Displays – the people who designed the Timelord’s Tardis and Daleks in BBC Wales’ hit renaissance of the classic sci-fi series plus a bespoke Range Rover in Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.

The parents- of-three, who met during the 17 years they spent working for the BBC, called them in after making contacts at Auntie.
Now the resort features a bar, reception and signs designed by the sci-fi experts.

Beth, 37, whose favourite Doctor was Tom Baker, said: “It would be great if the Doctor would stop by but I don’t know what he would make of it. But you never know, he might be on location in Aberystwyth someday – it’d be great publicity!


“Specialist Models and Displays designed the bar which has lights cut in at the bottom to give the impression that it is hovering in the air.


“It’s kind of a beam-me-up-scotty kind of thing. The whole idea is that it is very modern and 21st Century. It’s fantastic.


“I hope it doesn’t look too incestuous with the BBC thing, but not coming from the catering trade we just drew on what we knew.


“Everything in the hotel has been done by Welsh craftsmen.”


And former BBC producer Huw, 40, explained every effort was made to make the most of the building’s history too.


“We are in a Georgian Grade II listed building. So we have not destroyed any features but highlighted them,” he said.


But referring to the legendarily roomy Tardis, Beth added: “It’s not bigger on the inside than the outside and it can’t disappear either!”


Specialist Models and Displays boss Simon Hooper said: “It will be quite a striking bar.


“I wouldn’t say the hotel was totally sci-fi but it’s a lovely modern and contemporary hotel using slate and glass and silver laminate.


“The bar and reception have a nice curved design. And the bar looks very nice with LED strip lighting at the bottom.”


Gwesty Cymru is expected to open on July 7.