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Ever wondered what it would be like to live like a royal? For those with a few million dollars to spend, now’s the opportunity to find out. The Old House, the country estate that Princess Margaret and her ex-husband Antony Armstrong-Jones shared, is currently up for sale.
The 4,195-square-foot property resides in Staplefield, in the county of West Sussex, and boasts a modernized house and grounds including a six bedroom main house, a pool house, and outbuildings. As a nod to its long history, the house features a mix of Tudor and Georgian styles, and was personally renovated to Armstrong-Jones’s taste after he received it from his uncle, interior designer Oliver Messel, in 1958 as a gift celebrating his marriage to Margaret.
The house is currently listed with Blue Book Agency for £3.95 million (about $5.3 million.)
“Princess Margaret was very ‘royal’ and loved the pomp and ceremony of living at Kensington Palace rather than the understated charm of the Old House,” current owner Amanda Walsh told The Wall Street Journal. Nonetheless, the home played host to both royals and glitterati during the princess’s marriage. Rolling Stones muse Bianca Jagger, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, and fashion designer Issey Miyake were all guests.
Blue Book director Theo James-Wright explained, via Vanity Fair France, “There are country houses, and then there are those that become part of national history. The Old House undeniably belongs to the latter category. … It was a place where members of the royal family mingled with artists, actors, writers, and creators, and where some of the most influential figures of the 20th century gathered in an intimate setting. Very few estates can truly claim to have been the setting for such a remarkable chapter in British cultural history.”
Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.