Britania Bay House, as it was originally named, was built for the British rock legend David Bowie in 1989 in collaboration with architect Arne Hasselqvist and New York designer Robert Litwiller. Bowie craved a property on the picturesque Caribbean island that was far away from the expected, in fact he stated “I wanted something 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 “The thing about Mandalay is that it is broken up into little areas that you can get lost in”. Bowie spent much time at his unique home on the island, attributing his lack of being able to work there to the outstanding views from the villa, explaining “The house is such a tranquil place that I have absolutely no motivation to write things when I’m there”.
Bowie sold the estate for $5m dollars to business tycoon and poet Felix Dennis in 1994. Felix Dennis renamed the villa Mandalay. Dennis was keen to preserve the villa as Bowie had intended and through the years added numerous details reflecting his own style. Dennis began writing poetry in 1999 after a bout of illness and wrote "Island Dreams" – 99 poems from Mustique with the Laughing Buddha being used on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please in May 2015. Felix Dennis spent five months of the year on the island and wrote some of his most popular poetry whilst owning the Mandalay Estate. Inspired by the scene as the sun goes down from Mandalay, Dennis wrote: 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. There have been numerous press articles stating that the estate is now available to rent for the first time ever, for a reported $40,000 per week. 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.
