An island where Stormzy wrote an album and Olly Murs is reported to have tied the knot has gone on sale with a guide price of £25m.
Osea Island is a 380-acre stretch of land situated in the Blackwater Estuary some 40 miles east of central London, which becomes cut off from the Essex mainland at high tide when its causeway is submerged.
With a rich history as a secret torpedo boat base during the First World War, and previously as one of England’s first addiction rehabilitation centres, the island has since served as inspiration for a host of artists and writers, while setting the scene for numerous films and television series.
Under the ownership of music producer Nigel Frieda, known for his work with Sugababes, Osea Island has been home to a recording studio used by artists such as Rihanna, Stormzy and Charli XCX, at a reported cost in 2019 of £20,000 per day.
Stormzy described his time spent on the island while recording his 2022 album This Is What I Mean as “a very surreal, spiritual experience”.
It has also served as a wedding venue reportedly used by Olly Murs for his 2023 marriage to bodybuilder Amelia Tank, with a new listing by estate agents describing the island as containing 38 residential properties.
Despite viewings being described as “strictly by appointment”, Simon Pelling, of the estate agency Fine and Country, which is jointly acting alongside Knight Frank, said: “We already have several bids on it and some of them are in excess of the guide price.”
“We see it going to operators who will use it in a similar way to how it is used now – as a venue, an event space or high-end letting facility,” he told the BBC.
Prior to its stint as a recording studio, Osea Island briefly hosted a rehabilitation clinic named the Causeway Retreat, which was reportedly used by Amy Winehouse prior to being shut down by a health regulator in 2010.
That period echoed its history in the early 1900s as a rehabilitation centre for alcohol and opiate addiction.
The island has also been used to film both the 1989 television adaptation and the 2012 film of The Woman in Black, as well as HBO’s The Third Day starring Jude Law, and served as the setting for New York Times bestseller The Club.
