The family home of Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright is for sale with Tlc Estate Agents for £2 million.
Sir Laurence Olivier was one of Britain’s most acclaimed actors, best known for his Shakespeare roles —both as an actor and as a director— and for films like Wuthering Heights and Rebecca.
He gained a knighthood in 1947 and became the first director of the National Theatre in 1962, serving until 1973.
Dame Joan Plowright was a decorated actress on stage and screen who starred in A Taste of Honey, Saint Joan and the 1992 film Enchanted April. She received a damehood in 2004.
The actors, who met during rehearsals for John Osborne’s The Entertainer at the Royal Court Theatre, married in 1961 and bought the property shortly afterwards.
Located near Ashurst, West Sussex, the Elizabethan former malthouse was originally purchased for Plowright’s parents.
It became a weekend retreat for the couple, who also owned homes in Chelsea and Brighton, and was a convenient midway point between Brighton and Chichester Festival Theatre, where Olivier was artistic director between 1962 and 1965.
“It assumed a greater importance in our lives as a country hideaway with a paddock, small orchard and land that we could cultivate and keep in touch with the earth,” wrote Plowright in her memoir.
“Larry created a beautiful lime walk, shrubbery and rose garden, and was never more at peace with the world than when he was clipping hedges and nurturing and pruning his roses.”
As well as the house, Olivier bought two of the surrounding fields. These 4.5 acres of land were a big part of the property’s draw.
According to Philip Zeigler’s biography, he created small gardens, “each separate like a small stage act, the main feature being a curved ‘where’er you walk’ tunnel of trained lime trees, redolent of Notley [his previous home].”
The couple added a tennis court and a heated indoor swimming pool to the property too, in which Olivier is said to have swum 60 lengths every morning. They built another studio room in an outbuilding, where rehearsals were sometimes held.
Over time, the malthouse stopped being a countryside bolthole and became the family’s main home. In the early 1980s, they extended the main house substantially to accommodate their growing family and friends, creating a master bedroom with views over the land, where the couple would rehearse their lines.
Today, the property spans 5,000 square feet, with seven bedrooms, five bathrooms and three reception rooms. In recent years, the extension, known as “The View”, has occasionally been rented out, while the outhouse with a studio has been used as a meeting space.
Over their 60-year tenure, the house formed the backdrop of the couple’s lives. It was where famous friends —including Maggie Smith, Alan Bennett, David Niven and Ian McKellen— came to visit, and where they hosted Olivier’s 80th birthday party in 1987.
In 2017, Nothing Like a Dame, the round-table documentary with Plowright, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith, was filmed at the house.
One of the couple’s daughters —they had three children together— got married at the property, while their grandson was born in the study. In 1989, it was where Olivier died, age 82.
“You’ve got this whole journey of life of arguably the most famous acting dynasty there’s ever been,” says sales agent Toby Brown. “It was a loved house for them…I can see how much of a wonderful escape it was for them.”
Joan Plowright died in January this year in a retirement home, aged 95.
The couple’s three children are now selling their family home of more than 60 years. In an interview with The Times, Richard Olivier recalled finding his parents’ numerous acting awards, letters and photographs – as well as a mock sword which was given to Olivier by the actor Edmund Kean on the opening night of Richard III. The British Library was unable to take it.
“Every so often we’d find a photograph or a letter about a particular occasion with someone thanking them for a lovely weekend at the Malthouse and we’d stop and read those out,” he said.
Brown, who sold one of the family’s homes last year, was engaged as the agent for the property, and it is currently for sale for £2 million.
With its space, surrounding land and outbuildings, Brown believes there is a “tonne of opportunity” for the property, and feels it would suit another family.
“Romantically, both the family and I would love to sell to a new family who care about the history of the house,” he says. “But equally, just a family who will love the house as much as the Olivier’s have: babies were born here, a daughter was married here, Sir Larry passed away peacefully here.”
Tlc are holding open house viewings later this month, for which registration is necessary.
“The key selling point of this beautiful property is not merely the bricks and mortar for sale - it’s what these walls have heard over the years. The rehearsals and meetings for some of the great stage and screen productions in history were held here.
“From Paul Newman to the Redgraves, Richardsons and Mark Rylance - everyone who has been anyone in theatre and film has visited the Malthouse,” says Brown. “There have been many, many happy memories there.”
