A secluded Essex island where Stormzy wrote an album, Olly Murs got married and The Woman in Black was filmed has gone on the market for £25million.
Osea Island in the Blackwater Estuary, which is owned by music producer Nigel Frieda, has 90 bedrooms and 61 bathrooms across a total of 38 residential properties.
The 380-acre private estate, which features an ancient Roman causeway and is cut off at high tide, was a secret naval base during the First World War.
The island, which also has evidence from the Viking and Norman eras, has its own private landing strip and was previously rented by the singer Rihanna.
Rapper Stormzy retreated to Osea with a series of fellow musicians and producers to write his third album This Is What I Mean, which came out in November 2022.
He later told the BBC: ‘Once you’re on the island, you were basically stuck there and we made a big chunk of the album there. It was a very surreal, spiritual experience.
‘When people are talking about their spiritual experiences, it’s like away with the fairies, but for everyone who was there, we prayed together, we would play football together, we would laugh, we would talk.
‘And these were some of the best musicians in the world, and they’re some of the best producers in the world and some of the best artists in the world.’
Osea Island in the Blackwater Estuary in Essex has a total of 38 residential properties
The properties across Osea Island have a combined 90 bedrooms and 61 bathrooms
The island, which is cut off at high tide, has evidence from the Roman, Viking and Norman eras
Singer Olly Murs married his fiancée Amelia Tank in a three-day event on Osea in July 2023
Other artists to have recorded there include Jessie J and Tinnie Tempah, while Amy Winehouse attended a rehab clinic on Osea in 2008.
Singer Olly Murs, who is from Witham in Essex, married his fiancée Amelia Tank in a three-day festival-style event on the island in July 2023.
Osea has also been used a filming location for both the 1989 TV adaptation and the 2012 movie version of The Woman in Black.
The 2000 crime film Essex Boys was shot there, as was the 2020 mini-series The Third Day, starring Jude Law, Naomie Harris and Emily Watson.
Estate agent Simon Fielding from Fine and Country told BBC News: ‘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.
‘Its proximity to London is a major selling point and it’s beautiful.’
The 2012 film version of The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe was filmed on Osea
The 1989 television adaptation of The Woman In Black was also filmed on Osea Island
Stormzy retreated to Osea to write his third album This Is What I Mean, which came out in 2022
The island in Essex was also previously rented by the singer Rihanna
The firm said Osea also offered ‘further development potential and an established hospitality and entertainment business’.
Osea has evidence relating back to the Viking, Norman and Roman eras – and was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1066 as ‘Uvesia’.
The island was bought in 1903 by social reformer Frederick Charrington, part of the Charrington brewing dynasty.
He created one of the world’s first temperance societies on Osea where alcoholics and people with other addictions could retreat for free help in return for working on the island.
Palm trees and fuchsias were planted, a large ornamental seal pond was built and wallabies were even imported from Australia.
In 1917 the admiralty requisitioned the island as a top-secret naval base called SS Osea, with 1,000 sailors billeted on what became a base for motor torpedo boats.
During the Second World War, the British Army used the island and it was hit by a V2 rocket which had been intended to strike London.
Estate agents Fine and Country said Osea offered ‘further development potential’ for buyers
The island in Essex features walled gardens, orchards, carp lake and swimming pools.
The island now has 38 residential properties and is owned by music producer Nigel Frieda
Cambridge University took over ownership of Osea following the war, using it as a site of special scientific interest because of its ecology, rare plants, birds and marine life.
In more recent decades the island has become a celebrity enclave and been dubbed the ‘English Necker Island’, after Sir Richard Branson’s Caribbean retreat.
Osea was bought in 2004 by Nigel Frieda who has produced music for the Rolling Stones and launched the Sugababes.
Its initial purpose was as a £10,000-a-week rehabilitation clinic called The Causeway Retreat which opened in 2006.
This was attended by singer Amy Winehouse, Take That star Mark Owen and actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
But in 2010 it was closed down after an investigation by health watchdogs, who then launched a criminal prosecution against the company running the clinic.
The firm was taken to court and admitted running an unregistered service and the judge said its standards ‘would really shame a Third World country’.
Former staff and patients later came forward to describe a shambolic ‘Fawlty Towers regime’ in which vulnerable patients were at risk.
Cambridge University previously used Osea as a site of special scientific interest
In recent decades Osea has become a celebrity enclave, dubbed the ‘English Necker Island’
The island can host weddings, and was the location for Olly Murs’s nuptials in 2023
Since then the island has become notable for hosting a range of high-profile music artists who have made the most of its discreet setting.
It has been refurbished to provide a luxury retreat, with state-of-the-art recording studio facilities, an event and holiday letting business and private properties.
The island now has 38 residential properties, from the Edwardian Manor House to Charrington House which provides a range of luxury apartments converted from a former orphanage.
There is also a village pub and static caravans as well as fields for camping, glamping and festivals.
Osea has a causeway allowing vehicles to access from the mainland at low tide, while there is also a jetty and dry dock, a light aircraft landing strip and helicopter landing area.
In addition, the island features is a water treatment plant and sewage system, electrical substation, walled gardens, orchards, carp lake and swimming pools.
