Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Prince Albert designed the house himself in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. The builder was Thomas Cubitt, the London architect and builder whose company built the main façade of Buckingham Palace for the royal couple in 1847. An earlier smaller house on the site was demolished to make way for a new and far larger house. Queen Victoria died at Osborne House in January 1901. Following her death, the house became surplus to royal requirements and was given to the state with a few rooms retained as a private royal museum dedicated to Queen Victoria. From 1903 until 1921 it was used as a junior officer training college for the Royal Navy known as the Royal Naval College, Osborne. In 1998 training programmes consolidated at the Britannia Royal Naval College, now at Dartmouth, thus vacating Osborne House. The House is now open to the public for tours.
The laying out of the estate, gardens and woodlands provided a way for the Prince Consort to prove his knowledge of forestry and landscaping, an area in which previously at the more official royal residences he had been thwarted by the Commissioners of Woods and Forest. Below the gardens was a private beach where the Queen kept her own private bathing machine. The grounds include a ‘Swiss Cottage’. The cottage was dismantled and brought piece by piece from Switzerland to Osborne where it was reassembled. There, the royal children were encouraged to garden. Each child was given a rectangular plot in which to grow fruit, vegetables and flowers. They would then sell their produce to their father. Prince Albert used this as a way to teach the basics of economics. The children also learned to cook in the Swiss Cottage, which was equipped with a fully functioning kitchen. Both parents saw this kind of education as a way of keeping their children’s feet firmly on the ground in spite of their royal status. In 1903, part of the estate became a junior officer training college for the Royal Navy known as the Royal Naval College, Osborne. Initial training began at the age of 13, and further studies were continued at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. The College closed in 1921, with the last students leaving on 9 April 1921.
Today, Osborne House is under the care of English Heritage and is open to the public. The former Naval College’s cricket pavilion was converted into a holiday cottage in 2004 and can be booked by members of the public. Guests staying at the cottage are given the right to use the Osborne Estate private beach. Since 2005, the Osborne House has occasionally hosted picnic-style concerts on the lawn outside the main house. English Heritage has a management contract to run Osborne House as a historic tourist attraction. The residence’s ownership since 1971 has been held in a private property trust connected to Historic Royal Palaces – the overarching trust covering among others Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London. Queen Victoria’s private beach at Osborne, including her personal bathing machine, was opened to the public for the first time in July 2012 following an extensive restoration programme.
