The Mandalay Estate is a ,
Balinese-style villa perched on the hills above
Britannia Bay
Britannia Bay is a small town in the West Coast District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa, approximately from Cape Town.
The village takes its name from a British East Indiaman ship which was badly damaged by a reef in ...
on the Caribbean island of
Mustique in
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The island
The late
Colin Tennant
Colin Christopher Paget Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner (1 December 1926 – 27 August 2010) was a British aristocracy, British aristocrat. He was the son of Christopher Grey Tennant, 2nd Baron Glenconner, and Pamela Winefred Paget. He was also t ...
,
3rd Baron Glenconner, bought the island in 1958 and created the idyllic destination of Mustique. In 1960 media attention rose when Lord Glenconner presented land to
Princess Margaret
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...
as a wedding gift.
David Bowie
The house was originally built as Britannia Bay House for the British singer and songwriter
David Bowie in 1989 in collaboration with architect Arne Hasselqvist and the designer Robert Litwiller.
Bowie desired a property as "unlike the Caribbean as possible".
At the centre of the villa is a
koi pond with waterfalls and an
infinity pool, surrounded by a series of Balinese pavilions. Bowie was fond of the villa's layout saying that "The thing about Mandalay is that it is broken up into little areas that you can get lost in". Bowie attributed his lack of being able to work there to the outstanding views from the villa, explaining that "The house is such a tranquil place that I have absolutely no motivation to write things when I'm there".
Felix Dennis
1n 1994 Bowie sold the estate for 5m
U.S. dollars
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
to business tycoon and poet
Felix Dennis who renamed the villa Mandalay.
Dennis was keen to preserve the villa as Bowie had intended
Dennis wrote ''Island Dreams – 99 poems from Mustique'' at the house. Dennis spent five months of the year on the island and wrote some of his most popular poetry there.
Inspired by the scene as the sun goes down from Mandalay, Dennis wrote:
:"A ball of fire is spilling in the sea
:The empty sky flamingo-pink and grey
:Cicada songs creak out the end of day
:A choir of tree-frogs whistle: 'Come to me!'"
Dennis worked with the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines to give each of the 12,500 secondary school children a laptop in 2014.
Present day
After the death of Felix Dennis
in June 2014, the Mandalay Estate was put up for sale and sold to entrepreneur
Simon Dolan
Simon Dolan (born 20 May 1969) is a British businessman and investor who made his fortune through accountancy services. Since 2020, he has opposed measures by the United Kingdom government linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and has made legal ch ...
. The villa has five bedrooms including one in what was once David Bowie's recording studio and another in the Writers Cottage where Felix Dennis wrote his poetry.
References
External links
*
{{coord missing, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
David Bowie