Penthouse plus Gothic tower, yours for $2500

“It’s certainly got a limited, niche kind of appeal,” said the leasing manager of Sydney Cove Property, Rohan Alexander, of the architectural flourish atop the Grace Hotel in York Street.

Access to the turret is included in the $2500-a-week lease for the three-bedroom apartment, which was added to the roof of the landmark neo-Gothic building in 1998, when it was converted from offices by the owner, the Low Yat Group from Malaysia.

“Unfortunately the staircase up the turret is too narrow to allow you to put anything much up there, but you get some nice views of the city from the top,” Mr Alexander said.

The lavish penthouse apartment was most recently leased by the Irish consulate-general, but has been vacant for three months.

The hotel’s general manager, Philip Pratley, said that “since the Irish economy ran into trouble, I think they made the decision to scale back to something more modest. But this building has a wonderful, rich history.”

The architects modelled the building loosely on the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower in Chicago.