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Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon's West Sussex retreat asks $5.3 million in its first public listing

8/2/2026

The Old House, the West Sussex estate where Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon assembled a private circle of artists and royals across more than a decade, has come to public market for the first time at $5.3 million through Blue Book Agency.

The 5,750-square-foot home on 5.52 acres had changed hands twice before, both times off-market: a private sale in 2003 and an off-market purchase in 2005.

A buyer at the full ask would be acquiring a property originally built in 1481, held by the Messel family from 1890, and shaped by Lord Snowdon into a retreat that drew some of the most recognizable cultural figures of the twentieth century.

The provenance The property's royal chapter began as a family gift. Oliver Messel, the designer and Lord Snowdon's uncle, passed The Old House to his nephew ahead of the couple's May 1960 wedding at Westminster Abbey.

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