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The owner of Carrie Bradshaw’s iconic New York apartment featured in Sex and the City has had an application approved to build a gate at the front of her home to ward off fans taking pictures on the steps.
The staircase outside 66 Perry Street in New York City’s West Village has become an increasingly popular attraction.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the addition of a gate to the home on Tuesday, The New York Times reported.
In a statement to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, the owner said that the appearance of the apartment on the show was her “fault” after feeling sorry for the young location scout who said he would lose his job if he did not secure the house.
At the time no one knew that the show would become the phenomenon it has, having now been translated into 34 different languages and accumulating a worldwide fan base, the application, first reported by Substack newsletter FeedMe, said.
Due to the show’s popularity, the owner said her staircase is now “a global tourist destination”, with fans all over the world coming to visit the stoop.
“At any hour of the day or night, there are groups of visitors in front of the house taking flash photos, engaging in loud chatter, posting on social media, making TikToc [sic] videos, or just celebrating the moment.”
The 6th Precinct advised the owner to put a chain across the stoop with a no-trespassing sign attached, and while some visitors have respected the warning, others have not.
“They climb over the chain, pose, dance or lie down on the steps, climb to the top to stare in the Parlor windows, try to open the main entrance door, or, when drunk late at night, ring the doorbells,” the owner said.
She added that graffiti has also been painted on the steps and initials carved into the door frame.
As a solution, the owner said she is working with an architect to create plans for a stoop gate at the foot of the steps that will blend with the existing stair railings, areaway fence and the Italianate facade.
As the building is set in a historic neighbourhood, the owner has to seek permission for such projects.
The owner, who bought the three-family building back in 1979 and rents it out to tenants, said that if approved, the gate would “adhere to the existing authentic historic style.”
During the owner’s and the architect’s presentation to a panel of commissioners, two architectural preservation groups, Village Preservation and the Victorian Society of New York, testified in support of the gate’s design.
“Take all the pictures you wish standing on the street,” the owner said Tuesday. “But please don’t climb into our space and into our windows.”
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast
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