The Hideout Collective didn’t start in a meeting room or on a whiteboard — it started on a walk.
Wendy was wandering along the Regent’s Canal one afternoon, looking at the water, thinking big thoughts as she does, when she spotted a tired old barge sitting quietly, half-forgotten, with a fading For Sale sign. It had been there for years — four, to be exact — almost waiting, like it knew something was coming.
Every time she passed it, she said the same thing to Mark:
“We should buy that for our guys.”
And every time, Mark gave the sensible reply:
“We’ve got too much on already — we’re still setting up FPH!”
But the idea wouldn’t leave her alone.
It tugged at her sleeve every time she walked the towpath.
Then one warm day this summer, they were walking the canal together, passed the Jonge Jan once again, and Wendy repeated it — not joking this time, not dreaming out loud, but meaning it.
And for the first time… Mark didn’t say no.
He looked at the boat, looked at Wendy, looked at the possibility — and they both just knew.
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
And that was it.
The moment the Jonge Jan stopped being a forgotten boat and became the start of something extraordinary.
The Hideout Collective was born right there — from a spark of instinct, a stubborn belief in second chances, and two people mad enough (or brave enough) to say yes to an adventure with a barge that had been waiting for them all along.
Since then, the mission has been simple: take forgotten spaces and turn them into places where people can rebuild their lives.
- Not services.
- Not tick-box support.
- Not ‘client work’.
But...
- Real human belonging.
- Real opportunities.
- Real second chances — wrapped in sawdust, tea, teamwork, and the occasional bit of duct tape.
The Hideout Collective exists because Wendy saw potential where others saw rust…
And Mark said yes at exactly the right moment.