When you’re a queen – especially one with many children – finding time for romance is virtually impossible. With this end in mind, Queen Victoria, and her husband Prince Albert, started to build Osborne on the Isle of Wight in 1846, to be, in Victoria’s words, a “place of one’s own – quiet and retired”. The house, its gardens and private beach were used by the family to escape, and to celebrate special occasions, particularly the royal couple’s summer birthdays.
Today, this royal retreat is managed by English Heritage, and it is every bit the romantic escape for thousands of visitors as it was for the queen and her consort. Filled with opulent furnishings and surrounded by splendid gardens – and even a private beach – it’s a dreamy summer visit for couples and families alike. And the house’s history as a private getaway for the two royals is every bit as charming as the place itself.
An estate fit for a queen
After falling for the Isle of Wight and its mild climate, Victoria and Albert bought the Osborne estate in 1845. The existing house was too small for the entourage that comes with being a monarch, not to mention their growing family, so they knocked it down and built a new one. Working with master builder Thomas Cubitt, Albert designed an Italianate-style mansion with private rooms for him and Victoria, royal nurseries for their many children, a household wing for the queen’s advisers, stables for their 50 horses and carriages, and even a landing house for the coastguard.
If that wasn’t enough, in 1854, Albert added the Swiss Cottage, an Alpine-style chalet, designed as a private world for the royal children. Here was a place that the young princes and princesses could play at being adults, away from the raised eyebrows of judgmental courtiers, and learn important life skills, such as housekeeping, cookery, and gardening. There was a kitchen with a real stove, a dairy to make cheese, a fruit and vegetable garden complete with monogrammed wheelbarrows and miniature tools, and a museum where they could house and display their natural history specimens, fossils and antiquities. And, very astutely, Albert designed everything at three-quarter scale, making them children-sized.
With the children happily entertained, Osborne gave Victoria and Albert the opportunity to put their own spin on date night. One of their favourite activities was to sit out on the terrace on a summer’s evening and listen to the nightingales, but they were also known to enjoy a walk in the colourful, Italian-style gardens, ride in the royal park and spend time at their own private beach – there was even a bathing hut for privacy.
Royal birthdays at Osborne
Birthdays were an important feature at Osborne, and Victoria and Albert, who celebrated theirs on 24 May and 26 August respectively, were usually there for them. As you’d expect, these were over-the-top, lavish affairs. Since childhood, Victoria had had a “birthday table”, covered in gifts and flowers. Often, these tables were an art form all of their own, with the queen even commissioning artists to paint them in watercolour and, later on, photograph them. At Osborne, birthday tables were initially placed in the “horn room”, named for its stag horn furniture, but, by the 1850s, the presents had become so large and numerous, that a spare bedroom was established as “the present room”. The couple gave each other artwork, furniture and jewellery, much of which remains at Osborne today, providing a glimpse into Victoria and Albert’s personal tastes and styles.
The family’s birthday traditions weren’t limited to gift-giving though; forget a lie-in, Victoria’s birthday always started loudly, with the Royal Marines band playing a hymn, or choral piece, sometimes composed by Albert, below her window. The children then brought in flowers and, after a family breakfast, performed music and recited poetry they’d composed themselves. The afternoon saw everyone go for a drive and perhaps take a photograph on the terrace, before settling down for a family dinner and more entertaining, whether dancing or a concert.
The days of children reciting their own poetry may be in the past, but Osborne still offers a great family day out. A highlight, if the weather’s playing ball, is the sandy and shingle beach, where the royal children learned to swim from a pontoon moored off the shore, as well as the Swiss Cottage with its outdoor play area and museum full of curiosities. Be sure to check out the five-legged deer! In the main house, take some time to browse the opulent state rooms, which entertained 19th-century heads of states, monarchs and inventors, and have all the pomp and ceremony you’d expect of the Victorian era. But Osborne was where the family enjoyed a life away from being royals. Here, you can see what Victoria’s bathtub looked like, how the children were cared for in the nursery and Prince Albert’s private suite, which the queen left untouched after he died, an indication of how much she loved and missed him.
Visit Osborne to find out why Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had such happy times there – you can even rent a holiday cottage there. On an Isle of Wight stay, you can also visit Carisbrooke and Yarmouth castles
