Vanburgh Castle home for sale in south-east London: extraordinary family house - which is a quarter of the whole castle - hits the market for £2.75m

Here's your chance to be king or queen of your own castle home, while still being within a 15-minute commute of the City - if you have a spare £2.75 million.

A grand five-bedroom family home carved from the medieval walls of Vanbrugh Castle, a fortress-like folly overlooking Greenwich Park in south-east London, is for sale.

Celebrated architect Sir John Vanbrugh, known for his work on Castle Howard (of Brideshead fame) and Blenheim Palace, built the pile as his private residence almost 300 years ago.

In 1977, the Gothic pile was bought for £100,000 and separated - using dividing walls - into four private maisonettes.

Now, number 2 Vanbrugh Castle is up for grabs and has 3,250sq ft of living space across four floors, including a cellar and a separate annexe.

The unusual layout includes two reception rooms with high ceilings, sash windows and an open fireplace on the lower floors, along with a ground-floor kitchen overlooking the garden. The first floor is occupied by a master bedroom suite with an open fireplace.

On the second floor are three more double bedrooms and stairs to the spectacular roof terrace with a conservatory and kitchenette, and views to the west, past the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich down to the Thames, reaching as far as the Houses of Parliament.

The castle is set across two and a half acres of grounds with formal lawns, a knot garden and woodland.

The Grade I-listed structure is said to be modelled on the Bastille prison in Paris, where Vanbrugh was locked up for several years in his youth for being a spy.

The castle was built with a three-storey square keep with a basement built in brick and tall narrow windows, two square flanking towers with battlements and a central projecting circular tower capped by a conical copper roof.

The building's narrow sash windows echo medieval arrowslits or lancets.

Maze Hill station is within easy walking distance of the castle home and has regular train services to Cannon Street (16 mins).

2 Vanbrugh Castle is for sale through Cluttons for £2.75 million.