7 bed detached house for sale

The Olivier Malthouse, Steyning, West Sussex BN44

The Malthouse: Home to Sir Laurence Olivier and Dame Joan Plowright

Please call Toby Brown to arrange your 40 minute private viewing tour of the 60 year family home of Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright. If Walls could talk !

Full Brochure and Video Tour available on request.

Welcome to The Malthouse, home to Lord and Lady Olivier for over 60 years. This secret escape, nestled into the rolling hills of the Sussex downs, far away from the madding crowds of London’s West End and Hollywood, has been the most perfect family home for two of the world’s most famous and revered actors.

Having homes in both Brighton and London in the early 1960’s, the newly wedded ‘couple of the year’: Laurence and Joan, bought the original Elizabethan farmhouse for parents to reside in but soon after developing and landscaping the plot with many hours of love, moved in themselves.

The Olivier's met and married at a transformational moment in Sir Laurence's career. Having played all the great Shakespearean roles, and brilliantly filmed Henry V, Richard III and Hamlet, for which he won 3 of his 4 Oscars, Laurence then developed a passion for new drama. It was during rehearsals for John Osborne's ‘The Entertainer’ at The Royal Court Theatre that he met Joan and they fell in love. They were married the next year while playing in next door theatres on Broadway; their 30 year marriage encompassed raising three children, running the Chichester Theatre and founding the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic.

Sir Laurence spent the last years of his life playing memorable character roles in films between
precious times hosting friends and tending the gardens he designed at his beloved Malthouse, until he passed there peacefully in his sleep in 1989
Originally two small cottages, farming malt and selling it to trading vessels on the nearby River Adur, Larry bought two surrounding fields and spent several years crafting the 4 1⁄2 acres, which the property now overlooks today.

‘The View’ is currently used as a spectacular short term rental investment by the family for Sussex holidaymakers. Several outbuildings were also constructed, including self contained yoga and art studios and an indoor swimming pool which ‘Larry’ loved to do lengths in. The tennis court needs a little tlc before its’ grand slam ready, but has seen many a high strung battle won and lost over the years: You’ll have to ask Sir Mark Rylance who has the edge on this Royal Court.

Approaching the property, at the end of a country track is somewhat unassuming, until you meander through the high mazed, hedgerow passageway leading up to the house itself, which then starts to unwrap a multi layered present, which keeps on giving.

Favourite rooms for the family include their cosy snug dining room, with it’s beautiful dark beamed panelling and roaring fireplace. There have been many ‘flashes of merriment that were wont to set this table on a roar’ in here: The dinner with Paul Newman and the 1944 Claret which was briefly, then wasn’t, the best wine ever sipped, was a most cherished memory

Larry’s 80th Birthday party which flowed from this very room, outside with 22 guests including Richardsons, Redgraves, Mills, Wagners and that’s not to mention the Dames! Only in 2017, Dames Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright herself, filmed Roger Michells’ charming documentary Nothing like a Dame in the house.

The view from upstairs at ‘The View’, a first floor master bedroom of dreams, really does what it says on the tin. England’s Green and Pleasant Land at its finest, will be sure to take your breath away. Even after too much claret, waking up here every morning, sliding open the doors to the terrace and drinking in this marvelous vista will soon clear the head.

Larry and Joan loved to learn lines up here for their next award winning turn on stage and screen. A certain Sir Ian McKellan and Sir Laurence shared many a tale of rehearsals for The Scottish Play up here. Time and the Conways Directed by Richard Olivier and starring Tamsin and Julie Kate, his sisters and mother Joan, was rehearsed here too.

Such an inspiring scene reminded Sir Larry of favourite Shakespeare lines, often quoted as he walked guests around the garden, pointing out his favourite features:

"This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, This other Eden, demi-paradise...this little World...”
(Henry IV part 1)
And, in the words of Caliban from the Tempest:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: And then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again

A Magical Narnia, a hidden wonderland, a dream away from Theatreland. The Olivier’s have simply loved living here.

In Spring 2025, The Oliviers open their fourth wall up and invite another family to stage their future memories within, when the house goes up for sale.

Qualified Private Appointments to be arranged via Toby Brown. Please call for more information.

Lease details, service charges, ground rent (where applicable) and council tax are given as a guide only and should be checked and confirmed by your Solicitor prior to exchange of contracts.

TLC Estate Agents are a NAEA & RICS registered agent with Client Money Protection and Members of The Property Ombudsman.