Around Our Shores: Osborne House, Isle of Wight
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, which is now open to the public to view. Osborne House is situated near Osborne's picturesque beach, a wonderful place to relax on sun loungers and top up your tan, or to go for a paddle in the crystal clear waters of the Solent.
The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert after her marriage in 1840 as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert, the Prince Consort, partly designed the house himself alongside architect Thomas Cubitt, in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo.
The Italianate house, with extensive gardens containing every known English tree, was Queen Victoria's favourite home. Today, many of the apartments are preserved almost exactly as the Queen left them when she died there in 1901.
The house, with its life-size Swiss Cottage in the grounds where the royal children played and its museum is open to the public, and now in the careful hands of English Heritage.
For more blogs exploring the sights, sounds and wildlife Around Our Shores please click here.
For more information and opening times visit Osborne House online by clicking here.
Photo credit(s): Shutterstock
