Osborne House

Osborne House

The present house dates from 1845 and stands on the site of an 18th-century house built by Robert Pope Blanchford. The property was sold by Lady Isabella Blanchford to Queen Victoria in 1845, whereupon the original house was demolished. The new house was designed by Prince Albert, though Thomas Cubitt served as builder and probably also contributed to the architectural design. The Pavilion Wing was completed in 1846 and the Household Wing in 1851. In the 1890s the Durbar Wing was added, built by Bhai Ram Singh and John Lockwood Kipling (Rudyard Kipling's father), with J R Mann as architect.

The house is a large, irregular building in Italianate style, constructed of brick with cement facing and strengthened with iron girders. The entrance front faces south-west. The south-west wing forms an L-shape. Its south-west front rises three storeys above a basement with balustraded area, featuring seven windows. The elevation includes stringcourses, a modillion cornice, and a balustraded parapet. Windows have moulded architrave surrounds with cornices and brackets above; glazing bars remain intact. At each end of the ground floor is a bay of three windows topped by a balustraded parapet surmounted by two statues.

The north-west front of this L displays eleven windows. The ground floor has round-headed windows flanked by rusticated pilasters. On the first floor runs a loggia spanning the entire front length, containing eleven round-headed openings shaped like Venetian windows with Ionic columns, each opening flanked by Ionic pilasters. A dentilled cornice and parapet sit above the loggia, forming a balcony and surmounted by urns. A modillion cornice crowns the second floor, with a parapet above.

This wing adjoins the centre block of the north-west courtyard via one two-storey window bay with a loggia similar to the north-west face. The Flag Tower rises 107 feet across five storeys, featuring bracket cornices above the third floor and at the top. A round-headed window appears on the ground floor and three-light windows on the top floor. The remainder of the centre block contains four windows with moulded architrave surrounds, pediments, and intact glazing bars.

The centre connects to the north-west wing of the courtyard through a two-storey section with two windows and loggia matching that on the south-east. The north-west wing, known as the Durbar Wing, was added after 1897 to house Indian gifts presented to the Queen at her Diamond Jubilee. It comprises two storeys and four windows; the south-westernmost window bay is recessed, while the remainder are flanked by Ionic pilasters with cornices above the ground floor and cornice and parapet above the first floor. Ground floor windows here are flanked by engaged Corinthian columns.

On the garden front, the centre block of the north-west courtyard displays three storeys and five windows, with a curved bay of three windows in the centre. A stuccoed balcony with hood occupies the first floor. Behind this lay Queen Victoria's bedroom, the room in which she died on 22 January 1901. The garden front of the north-east wing has three storeys and nine windows with a Venetian window at the centre. It terminates in a lower portion containing two storeys and three windows, with loggia matching the north-west front, and another five-storey tower with a two-light window on each floor and bracket eaves cornice at the top. An Italian terraced garden extends in front of this wing. Extensive service wings lie to the south-east.

The interior contains a well staircase with iron balustrade and a fresco by Dyce (1847) depicting Neptune entrusting the Command of the Sea to Britannia. The State rooms on the ground floor employ Georgian style motifs. The Durbar Wing features walls covered with Indian plaster decoration and a peacock overmantel to the fireplace.

Osborne House is listed for its architectural interest and historical significance as the Victorian Royal Family home and the place where both Prince Albert and Queen Victoria died. The house now functions partly as a museum and partly as a convalescent home for civil servants.