After selling her elegantly renovated estate in the Sydney suburbs last year for $14.1 million, Cate Blanchett has added a large English manor to her real estate portfolio. The Australian actress and theater director, along with her playwright-director husband Andrew Upton, has purchased the $4.5 million Highwell House in the UK. 
The two-time Oscar winning actress’ new property is located near Crowborough in the countryside East Sussex area which is about an hour south of London.
The 13-plus acre country estate is home to seven bedrooms, eight full and two half bathrooms as well as five reception rooms. 
The 9,028 square feet Victorian mansion, built in 1890, boasts of glorified past owners including Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 
The sprawling red-brick property also features a games room, family room, a large eat-in kitchen, a dozen antique fireplaces as well as greenhouse.
Noteworthy features of the interiors include a 19th-century French chandelier in the paneled reception hall leading onto an oak staircase, a 40-foot drawing room lit by a glitzy pair of crystal chandeliers, a secondary lounge that opens through French doors to a black slate terrace, and a formal dining room.
Rubbing shoulders with the homes of the likes of Kate Winslet, Paul McCartney’s ex-wife Heather Mills, and musician Bryan Ferry, the estate’s grounds boasts of vast lawns and a private pond with island.
Variety
