Born out of a desire to make affluent customers’ dreams come true, The Master Wishmakers was co-founded by Sege Rosella and Roger McIntyre, two friends who owned an architectural design and build firm specialising in luxury housing.
When approached by a client to construct a high-end playhouse, with the same build quality and attention to detail as an actual house, they spotted a gap in the market and formed The Master Wishmakers.
Starting with bespoke playhouses and progressing to bigger projects, the company’s latest venture saw them design and build Challis Island, a 60-acre pirate-themed paradise in the English countryside.
Built on an artificial island in the middle of a lake, complete with its own waterfall, guesthouse and pub – appropriately named The Black Doubloon – Challis Island cost more than US $1.5 million to build, making it the ultimate luxury plaything.
I caught up with the co-founders to understand what it takes to complete such a mammoth task, and to find out what they’ve got in the pipeline for the future. But first, I want to find out a little bit more about their pirate-loving mystery client.
With an end product limited only by the imagination, why did your client choose a pirate theme and what will he be using his private island for? I bet his kids love it.
The client has had a life-long affinity with pirates since he was a child. He told us that he couldn’t trace it back to a single event or occurrence, but it’s always been there. The island is purely for private recreational use for him, his family and friends. Incredibly, he’s only 29 and doesn’t have any children yet. If you had planned on a visit, you might be disappointed because he isn’t hiring it out.
Well, now that my hopes of brandishing my cutlass in the Cambridgeshire countryside have been dashed, maybe you can paint a picture and tell me more about some of the features and buildings on Challis Island?
Structurally, the island is made from artificial sediment that was dumped in the client’s private lake, within a 60-acre plot of land. It took 15 months for a team of 60 to construct by hand so, as you can imagine, there are some pretty spectacular features.
When you arrive on the island by boat, you can walk from Black Spot Dock and enter the high street through Gibbet Gate, which is located at the end of the man-made beach adjacent to Lubber’s Lock – a bespoke beach hut, where we suspect the rum is hidden.
From there, you can cross the island’s river by bridge and visit Coffer’s Cabin, a two-storey residence that comes complete with a double ‘pirate’ bedroom. Another great spot is Dead Man’s Deck – a patio area perfect for summer BBQs and late-night dancing.
These features all sound incredible, but what’s a pirate island without a pub? I’ve heard a rumour that Challis Island has its very own, is this true?
It is. The pub is called The Black Doubloon and has a fully functioning bar with some discreet refrigeration, although there are no working pumps, as they didn’t have those back in the 1700s. Having said that, every building on the island comes with electricity, plumbing and heating, so we bent the rules a little with our 18th century brief.
Judging by the fact that the island has a private boat dock, I assume that the only way to reach it is by braving the Seven Seas?
Eventually it will be. At the moment there is still a sunken causeway that allows access via a 4x4 vehicle. We are just waiting for the water level to reach the right height to submerge it; the lake is still refilling from when we drained it during construction.
So, with so many swashbuckling features on Challis Island, which would you say is your favourite?
Our favourite feature is the authentically designed high street. It really makes you feel as though you’ve stepped into the past. The street captures your imagination, which is really everything that The Master Wishmakers stand for.
That is your favourite feature above ground, but pirates are known for their buried treasure – surely there are some things hidden from plain view? Maybe a secret tunnel, or two?
There are plenty, but a secret is a secret and I’m afraid that’s just not something we can reveal. However, we can tell you that our design team made 100 unique skulls that have been hidden around the island. No two are the same, and I would recommend that you don’t wander around late at night if you are of a nervous disposition.
I’ll bear that in mind. Challis Island sounds like an incredible undertaking; do you have any plans to take on even bigger projects and perhaps work with hotels?
Absolutely. We are in early discussions with a team in Jamaica who are planning on building a working museum-cum-resort on the location that Christopher Columbus was said to have landed.
We’ve also been contacted by a potential client to build a quintessential 1950s American diner that’s actually a guesthouse in one of their holiday properties in Spain. This is based on our Rascal Revolts playhouse, which shares a similar theme.
You mention your playhouses and that is how The Master Wishmakers all began. Do you still cater to clients looking for that type of bespoke service?
We do. It is something we are passionate about and it’s a big part of our business. Just as it was with Challis Island, we create everything from scratch – whether that is a themed children’s bedroom or a fantasy island. We carry no stock, so we are completely flexible and can design playhouses and bedrooms to any specification.
We even use our team of artists to paint scenery and backdrops by hand. Nothing is made from cheap, theme-park grade plastic. With Challis Island, all of the buildings you see are made from European Oak and Douglas Fir.
Finally, one question that must be asked: how much did Challis Island cost?
As you can imagine, the cost of Challis Island is confidential, but we can certainly say that it was a seven-figure price tag. Our other products range in price, Baron’s Bunk, an aviation-themed children’s bedroom, for example, starts from GBP 20,000 (US $30,500) and we often quote prices personally for custom-made projects.
www.masterwishmakers.com
