The Block calls in forensic cleaners to clear up after junkies in notorious Gatwick Hotel

TELEVISION producers have been going off their Block after being forced to call in specialist forensic teams to remove hundreds of dirty used needles before shooting can start on the hit Nine show.

TELEVISION producers have been going off their Block after being forced to call in specialist forensic teams to remove hundreds of dirty used needles before shooting can start on the hit Nine show.

Disgusted cleaners found a horrifying 389 syringes wedged under carpets and jammed through gaps in the floor at the not­orious Gatwick Hotel in Melbourne.

“Some rooms in the hotel were immaculately maintained by elderly boarders and then right next door would be an ice lab,” a Block insider told The Daily Telegraph.

While some parts of the Gatwick were well kept, other rooms were littered with needles. Picture: Kylie Else

Producers were shocked at the state of The Gatwick Hotel in St. Kilda.

“There was graffiti sprayed on the walls and they had lifted up carpet to push needles through holes in the floorboards. It was not a safe environment.”

The Gatwick Hotel has certainly seen better days. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

TV producers paid $10 million to buy the decrepit 80-year-old hotel in St Kilda, which has been known for years as a drug den where down-on-their-luck residents were murdered, robbed and bashed in their $230-a-week rooms.

Before Channel Nine and Cavalier Television bought the flea pit the owners, twin sisters Rose Banks and ­Yvette Kelly, waged a campaign to stop authorities from closing it down in the face of repeated complaints from neighbours.

READ MORE: Why The Block won’t come back (to Sydney)

Hopefully that carpet is the first thing to go. Picture: Kylie Else

The former hotel is now boarded up, ahead of the new season. Picture: Fiona Byrne

In the months before it was sold the house of horrors was the scene of two rapes, an arson, a stabbing, at least 19 drug offences and aggravated burglaries. But with St Kilda property prices soaring, neighbours hope that restoring the building will remove the shadow it has long cast over the area.

The first stage was to close the doors and remove the drug paraphernalia from the hotel’s squalid rooms.

READ MORE:

• THE BLOCK EYES OFF ST KILDA’S NOTORIOUS GATWICK HOTEL

• GATWICK HOTELS SECRETS LAID BARE IN DOCUMENTARY

•ST KILDA’S GATWICK HOTEL RIFE WITH CRIME

The Gatwick Hotel in St Kilda has a pretty infamous history. Picture: Mal Fairclough

The Block host Scott Cam.

The Block 2018 contestant Elyse Knowles proved a popular one with viewers. Picture: David Caird

“The number one priority for us is that we have a completely safe worksite for our crew and contestants,” executive producer Julian Cress said.

“We have a proud safety record on The Block and we intend to keep it.”

Channel Nine will be hoping the 14th season of The Block, again hosted by Scott Cam, will repeat the success of last year when model Elyse Knowles and partner Josh Barker helped attract an average of 1.8 million viewers per episode.