Osborne House was the summer residence of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and family
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Prince Albert’s design is in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. The builder was Thomas Cubitt, whose company built the main façade of Buckingham Palace for the royal couple in 1847. There was an earlier smaller house demolished making way for the present larger house, though the original entrance portico is now the main gateway to the walled garden. Queen Victoria died at Osborne when 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 1876, as a tribute to Queen Victoria, the Government House of the colony (now State) of Victoria, Australia, was constructed as a copy of Osborne House. The laying out of the estate, gardens and woodlands provided a way for the Prince Consort to prove his knowledge of forestry and landscaping’. Below the gardens is a private beach where the Queen kept her own private bathing machine. The grounds also 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 in rectangular plots in which to grow fruit, vegetables and flowers and sell their produce to their father to teach the basics of economics. The children also learned to cook in the Swiss Cottage, which was equipped with a fully functioning kitchen. Queen Victoria died at Osborne on 22 January 1901 with two generations of her family gathered around her. With the exception of Princess Beatrice and Princess Louise, who both retained houses on the estate, the rest of the royal family saw Osborne as something of an inaccessible white elephan
Size: 4000px × 6000px
Location: Osborne House, East Cowes, Whippingham, Isle of Wight, UK
Photo credit: © Philip Chapman / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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