The Block filming starts at Gatwick Hotel
A COMMONWEALTH Games champion has joined the latest version of The Block, tackling St Kilda’s Gatwick Hotel.
Fiona Byrne
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A COMMONWEALTH Games champion has been revealed as one of the contestants taking on the challenge to breathe new life into the fleabag Gatwick Hotel on the new series of The Block.
Former netball champion Bianca Chatfield was seen on Thursday filming outside the St Kilda property which has been heavily scaffolded, along with a gaggle of other contestants.
A battle-worn kombi van arrived at the hotel filled with this year’s contestants all dressed like extras from the recent film Swinging Safari.
The show’s host Scott Cam, also dressed in a rather garish Hawaiian shirt was part of the day one action as the cast moved into the notorious former rooming house.
Friday saw work begin in earnest with the front of the Gatwick, which was bought by the Channel Nine production for $10 million last year, shrouded with high black cladding.
The property is now a full-fledged TV production site with part of nearby Loch Street blocked off as part of the construction zone.
The renovation of the Gatwick is the largest, and certainly highest profile, project undertaken by The Block.
Cleaning up the grubby property and ensuring it was structurally sound for its planned luxury makeover took longer than expected, pushing the filming start date back by about two weeks.
The Gatwick has a history that verges on scandalous with it’s recent past mottled with crime, drugs, violence and death.
It has been an eyesore on St Kilda’s Fitzroy St for decades and was well past its due date for a renovation when Channel Nine and The Block finally purchased it.
Plans approved by the City of Port Phillip council show the TV production wants to add a fourth level to the property, construct eight apartments within the old rooming house and reduce car parking from 13 to six spaces.
KNOW any of this year’s Blockheads? Let me know: fiona.byrne@news.com.au
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