Sex And The City apartment gated to keep tourists away

16 January 2025, 10:26 | Updated: 16 January 2025, 12:17

The owner of the New York townhouse featured in TV show Sex And The City has been granted permission to install a gate to keep trespassing tourists away.

The three-storey brownstone building in Greenwich Village was used for exterior shots of Carrie Bradshaw's apartment building in the show. Bradshaw was played by Sarah Jessica Parker.

Now, New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved an application for a gate to be installed because of "the endless presence of interest in my celebrity staircase", according to owner Barbara Lorber.

The house is within the Greenwich Village Historic District, which is designated as being on the US's National Register of Historic Places - the American equivalent to a listed building in the UK.

Ms Lorber, who has owned the building since 1978, told the commission: "I'd hoped for literally decades that this would pass.

"But at this point, I think even someone as stubborn as I am has to admit that this isn't going away in the near future."

She added that day and night, she experienced visitors taking flash photos, talking loudly and posting to social media. Some have added graffiti or carved their initials into the doorframe, she added in a letter sent to the commission.

The steps of the building have been chained off with a "no trespassing" sign but it has failed to deter fans of the show.

"They climb over the chain, pose, dance or lie down on the steps, climb to the top to stare in the windows, try to open the main entrance door, or, when drunk late at night, ring the doorbells," Ms Lorber wrote.

Sex And The City followed the lives and relationships of Bradshaw and her three friends for six seasons, beginning in 1998.

In the show, Bradshaw lived on Manhattan's Upper East Side, which in real life is around four miles away from the Greenwich Village building. The show spawned two movies and the sequel series And Just Like That...

Other houses featured in popular TV shows have also seen huge numbers of tourists visit including the building used for exterior shots of the Friends apartment and a New Mexico house used in TV show Breaking Bad.

(c) Sky News 2025: Sex And The City apartment gated to keep tourists away