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A centuries-old English country home once presided over by Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister, Princess Margaret, has hit the market for the first time, asking roughly $5.28 million. Covered in ivy and surrounded by manicured gardens, the Tudor-meets-Georgian residence sits on 5.5 acres in rural Staplefield, West Sussex, about 40 miles south of London.
Ben Wright Photography
The pool area comes with a two-bedroom stone cottage.
Known as Old House, the estate has roots stretching back to 1481. It was a wedding gift to Princess Margaret from designer Oliver Messel, the uncle of her new husband, photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, better known as Lord Snowdon.
Lord Snowdon received a leasehold interest in the estate from his uncle in 1958, two years before marrying into the royal family, according to Vanity Fair France. However, Margaret preferred the trappings of Kensington Palace, where the pair kept a permanent apartment, rather than their new bucolic hideaway.
Ben Wright Photography
The interiors feature brick fireplaces and beamed ceilings.
After the couple’s highly publicized divorce in 1978, Snowdon relocated to Old House full-time and later married Lucy Lindsay-Hogg. He offloaded the 4,200-square-foot property in a private transaction in 2003, and the current owners bought it two years later in another off-market deal. (The National Trust continues to own the freehold, per the listing brochure.)
During his time overseeing the estate, Snowdon made a series of renovations, particularly in the 1960s and ’70s. When he was married to Margaret, he opted for a sleeker look: “This was a period of minimalism,” he told The London Standard in 2012. “The Arne Jacobsen chairs, brick floors and everything just whitewashed. I was always changing the inside—it has never been finished.”
Ben Wright Photography
The kitchen comes with an AGA range.
That period gave the estate its reputation as a party spot for British high society, as it hosted soirees with guests including Peter Sellers, Bianca Jagger, and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, to name just a few.
By the 1970s, the look transformed. “Having got over the ‘60s influence, when the whole place was filled with paper Japanese lampshades, the place sobered up, thanks to Lucy, who made it much more cozy and livable in,” he told The Standard.
Ben Wright Photography
The upstairs bath features Lord Snowdon’s design touches, including newspaper-clad walls.
At least one piece of Snowdon’s time as owner remains intact: The upstairs bathroom is still clad in newspaper and tabloid clippings as well as family photographs, apparently untouched for decades.
The centerpiece of the estate is the six-bedroom main house, which features rustic design details like exposed wooden beams, brick fireplaces, and a classic AGA cast-iron range. Additional amenities include an outdoor swimming pool and a two-bedroom stone cottage, plus a slate of outbuildings such as a tractor shed, garden room, study, log store, and a children’s playhouse.
Old House is listed for £3.95 million ($5.3 million) with Blue Book Agency.
Geoffrey Montes is an associate editor at ELLE Decor with a serious love for all things real estate and design. Before that, he worked at Architectural Digest, Galerie, and Preservation magazines, covering everything from jaw-dropping listings to world-famous architects and design events like Salone del Mobile and Homo Faber.