This arts-loving royal was born in a palace but lives in a terraced house! (A ... trends now

When she was born at Kensington Palace on May 1, 1964, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones was seventh in the line of succession.

Weighing 6lb and 2oz, she was the first direct descendant of a sovereign in 145 years - since Queen Victoria's birth in 1819 - to have been born at Kensington Palace.

And  the last royal to be born in a palace rather than a hospital. 

Her father, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, was not present for the birth but arrived an hour afterwards. Beaming, he then told the press: 'She's a super baby'.

Sarah was two-and-a-half years younger than her brother, David Armstrong-Jones.

Her grandmothers - the Queen Mother and Lady Rosse - were among the first relatives to see her. 

Other family visitors included the Queen and Angus Ogilvy, the husband of Princess Alexandra, Margaret's cousin.

Lady Sarah was the fourth royal baby of the year, after the births of the Queen's youngest son, Prince Edward, Princess Alexandra's son James, and the Duchess of Kent's daughter Lady Helen Taylor.

Lady Sarah, now 59, is not a working royal but is regularly seen at family events. 

Today, she  is famed for her down-to-earth nature and her close relationship with the late Queen.

Indeed, the Queen was described as a 'surrogate mother' to Margaret's children  and was particularly close to Lady Sarah, who is believed to have reminded her of her late sister.

One royal insider previously revealed: 'The Queen adores Sarah and seeks out her company as often as possible. She is her absolute favourite younger Royal.

'They are hugely at ease in each other's company. Much giggling can be heard when they are together. They share a sense of loyalty, fun, duty and the ridiculous.'

One acquaintance said: 'Sarah is very unassuming; shy and almost embarrassed with no grandeur at all. Take royal events — she'll be on the balcony, but she never pushes herself to the middle or the front, like some.'

At the time, her parents, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, were the toast of swinging London, their Kensington Palace apartment the scene of hedonistic parties. 

But the marriage, a rebound affair after Margaret decided not to marry divorced equerry Peter Townsend, was notoriously tempestuous. 

Fuelled by alcohol and affairs on both sides, their 18-year union was once described as a 16-year break-up.

At just 13, her parents' divorce was 'terribly upsetting' for Sarah. 

As Margaret was granted custody, the children stayed in Kensington Palace. Sarah was sent to Francis Holland School in Chelsea, a smart all-girls' day school, followed by Bedales with her brother. 

The mixed boarding school in rural Hampshire — alma mater of actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Minnie Driver — was a fashionable, arty, bohemian choice.

It had no uniform and nurtured artistic expression above all else. It was what both parents wanted — and it ensured Sarah inherited a love of art.

This 'progressive' institution was the polar opposite to the starchiness of a royal upbringing.

One contemporary said that when Lady Sarah turned up 'she was practically in a velvet-collar coat and tweeds although everyone else was hanging out in their kickers'.

However it was quite possibly this school — with its warm, nurturing atmosphere — that made her the woman she is now.

Sarah had grown up knowing that her mother had little time or patience for babies and small children. 

Despite Snowdon's reluctance, nannies and housemaids were in charge and the children were instructed never to wake their mother before 11am — a rule that was keenly enforced by Nanny Sumner, whose old-fashioned methods were in direct conflict to the modern ideas of Snowdon.

Her father, however, doted on her and it is from him she is said to have inherited her 'immense charm'.

Both her parents passed on their artistic eye to their children as Sarah, now a painter, and her brother David, a world-famous furniture designer, were taken around galleries in their youth.