Princess Margaret’s Former English Country Retreat Lists for US$5.3 Million
The 15th-century residence, known as The Old House, served as inspiration for scenes in "The Crown."
Long before it inspired scenes in Netflix’s historical drama The Crown, a rambling country house in West Sussex, served as the private escape of Princess Margaret and her husband, photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, better known as Lord Snowdon. Hidden within more than five acres of gardens, the centuries-old retreat became the backdrop for royal weekends, celebrity-filled parties, and one of the most talked-about marriages of the 20th century.
Known as The Old House, the property dates to 1481 and was gifted to Armstrong-Jones by his uncle, artist and stage designer Oliver Messel, shortly before he married Princess Margaret in 1960. Although the couple maintained an apartment at Kensington Palace, Snowdon transformed the once dilapidated cottage into a secluded country retreat where aristocrats from across Europe mingled with artists, writers, and actors.
Ben Wright
By the mid-1960s, weekends at The Old House had become the stuff of British society legend. Guests included actor Peter Sellers, ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn, Bianca Jagger, financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, and author Edna O’Brien, among many others. The home’s colourful past later inspired a season-three episode of The Crown and lives on in one of Snowdon’s quirkiest design choices: an upstairs bathroom whose walls are covered in vintage newspaper clippings, royal gossip, and family photographs that have remained largely untouched for decades.
Ben Wright
The house reflects more than five centuries of additions and renovations. Georgian expansions layered onto the original Tudor structure have created a roughly 5,750-square-foot residence with six bedrooms, exposed timber beams, original fireplaces, Georgian panelling, and bay windows. A double reception room overlooks the gardens, while the Aga-equipped kitchen opens onto terraces facing Snowdon’s man-made lake. Elsewhere across the estate are a pool house with guest accommodations, a library housed in Snowdon’s former photographic darkroom, and a folly built from a balcony salvaged from Ascot Racecourse’s Royal Box.
The 5.5-acre grounds include formal garden rooms connected by bridges, stepping stones, and water features, with an island pavilion, restored vegetable gardens, and spring carpets of bluebells. The Queen Mother even presided over the opening of the estate’s stepping stones during a ceremony held on the property.
Lord Snowdon sold the home privately in 2003, with the current owners acquiring it in another off-market transaction two years later. The property is now on the market for the first time in its history, listed with Blue Book Agency for 3.95 million pounds (about US$5.3 million).
“There are country houses and then there are houses that become part of the national story. The Old House falls firmly into the latter category,” says Theo James-Wright, director at Blue Book Agency. “What Lord Snowdon created here was not simply a private home but an extraordinary creative retreat.”
Scroll below to see more photos of Princess Margaret’s former country home.
This story was originally published on Robb Report USA.
Lead image: Ben Wright; Getty Images
All photos of the property are by Ben Wright
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