The Gatwick Hotel has gone from grime to shine and best on The Block, TV host Scotty Cam says

THE site of countless killings, assaults and drug deals, St Kilda’s notorious Gatwick Hotel was a house of horrors. With its transformation to luxury apartments about to air on The Block, we look back on its darker days.

ST KILDA’S former “house of horrors” is ready to cement its new place in history, after years riddled with murder, rape and prolific drug use.

Melbourne’s most notorious boarding house — the Gatwick Hotel — was once a place of nightmares, with fed-up neighbours dubbing it the “epicentre” of the area’s problems.

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The rooming house was home to many of the area’s downtrodden, giving shelter to those with nowhere else to go.

But reports of daily violent assaults and drug use in and around the squalid 66-room flophouse, as well as increasing pressure from authorities and the media, led Housing Minister Martin Foley to announce in March 2017 it would be shut down.

Freedom of Information documents showed five ambulances a week were called to the disreputable rooming house on average over 12 months.

The seedy building was also the scene of many gruesome murders and violent attacks, with police making up to five visits a day and an average of three deaths a year recorded there for the past 15 years.

The Gatwick was part of the St Kilda Police daily beat.

When the closure was announced Inspector Jason Kelly told the Leader the data showed it was “not being operated at an acceptable standard”.

“It was time to shut the door or hand over the keys to new management,” he said.

Those keys were snapped up by The Block for a reported $10 million.

And, once the long-term tenants were relocated, specialist forensic teams were quickly sent in to remove hundreds of used needles before shooting started on the hit show, which premieres Sunday August 5.

If the walls could talk.

The Gatwick had long suffered a dramatic fall from grace, after first opening its doors in 1937 as a luxurious private hotel with “lovely wall to wall carpets”, a cardroom, esteemed chef and three bathrooms on every floor — all for just three guineas a week.

It provided accommodation for the United States armed forces during World War II before changing hands in 1944 and again in 1977 to Ronald and Vittoria Carbone.

“Old but fairly clean” rooms were advertised for $20 per week.

But things went downhill from there.

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Daughters Rose Banks and Yvette Kelly ran the “drug infested hell hole” until its ultimate decline.

With troubled Gatwick residents running riot on Fitzroy St, shop vacancies on the once thriving entertainment precinct plummeted to about 20 per cent, with hopes The Block’s revival would see the once-plagued strip revitalised.

Seedy characters were a familiar sight out front. Picture Jay Town.

The inner south has quickly become a favourite stomping ground with Scott Cam and The Block producers, with past seasons shot in neighbouring Elsternwick and Port Melbourne.

Channel 9 has also reportedly bought the “scummy” Oslo Hotel on Grey St for a future season.

The show’s properties have fetched more than $3 million for their inner-Melbourne refits, with St Kilda’s renovations hoped to beat past records.

Scott Cam outside The Gatwick during the renos.

Cam told the Leader it was about picking hot spots where people wanted to live.

“I think our show is as much a building show as it is a real estate show and you’ve gotta be in good areas that show returns and profit after renovating,” he said.

One of the “eyesore” former bathrooms.

“This is an iconic building in St Kilda and people were happy we were taking it on.

“It’s been a bit of an eyesore and had problems along the way so it was a no-brainer to transform the beautiful building.”

“It was … a rough old building and there had been some history in it, but the nature of The Block is you’ve gotta move in and get going.

The Gatwick Hotel’s former owners took a parting shot before Channel 9 officially assumed ownership in 2017.

Cam said it was St Kilda’s diversity and welcoming arms that set it apart from the rest.

“You’ve got the high end $2-3 million properties and the one bedroom renters all living in the same area,” Cam said.

Five teams, including Victorian netball champions Bianca Chatfield and Carla Dziwoki, have transformed the once-festy rooms into modern 250sq m apartments — with some penthouse loungerooms bigger than the apartments in The Block’s first season.

From this … to penthouse lounge room.

Cam said it had been a long three months for rookie renovator contestants but the show “took no prisoners”.

“It started off pretty intense because of the structure of the building and everyone was a bit concerned about what they needed to achieve,” he said.

“Normally we have meltdowns in week six when people reach the end of their tether, but those meltdowns happen from about week two in this season.

“It was a very difficult build and … a difficult one for people to get their head around … but then they look around three months later and they’ve built an apartment or house.”

The Block season 14 premieres on Channel 9, Sunday August 5 at 7pm.

Out with the old, in with the new. Picture: Alex Coppel.