The Isle of Wight always has a special place in my heart. I grew up there and my brother and his family live there, so we try to go back as often as we can. We love going across on the car ferry and watching all the boats going past as we mosey across the Solent.
We booked a lovely cottage in Cowes and had a wonderful week catching up with family and friends. We especially loved our trip to Osborne House in East Cowes.
I hadn’t been there for years and I’d forgotten just how stunning it was. It’s now run and maintained by English Heritage and is in fantastic condition, with just the most stunning gardens to wander around.
The Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is an Island which can be found just across the Solent from Hampshire. It is home to around 140,000 people and this makes it the second most populated island in England but it is the largest. The Island is still part of Hampshire but it became a separate administrative county in 1890.
The Island was called “Vectis” by the Romans and you will find lots of companies with the name “Vectis” on the Isle of Wight. Apparently the Island was also known as “Wit” in the Domesday book and in old English Islanders were said to be called “Wihtware”.
Its primary industry is tourism as it boasts some incredible beaches and attractions such as The Needles, Carisbrooke Castle, Blackgang Chine and of course Osbourne House.
The Island has been a tourist attraction since the Victorian times and has had many famous residents including Queen Victoria, Lord Tennyson, Charles Dickens, King Charles I was imprisoned there in Carisbrooke Castle, John Keats, Sir Christopher Cockerell, Bear Grylls, Anthony Minghella, Mark King (from Level 42), Jeremy Irons was born in Cowes and Benedict Cumberbatch allegedly currently lives there.
The Isle of Wight has also become renowned for its fantastic music festivals every year. In the early days of the festival, back in 1970, it was the largest rock music festival ever apparently !!
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria was born in 1819 on May 24th at Kensington Palace in London. She was crowned Queen of England in 1837 at the young age of 18. She married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. She was given the title of the Empress of India in 1876 and she expressed her love of India in some of the decor at Osborne House.
She had 9 children and died at Osborne House in 1901 at the age of 81. She reigned for 63 years which became known as the Victorian Era. During her reign, there were advances in politics, industry, science and in the military and a big expansion of the British Empire. ,
Her favourite places to be, throughout her reign, were Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
There are some fantastic films set in Osbourne house about Queen Victoria including Mrs Brown, starring Judi Dench and Billy Connolly and Judi Dench also played the queen in the film Victoria and Abdul.
Osborne House History
Osborne House is in East Cowes, which is right at the top tip of the Island. If you are coming from West Cowes you can catch the chain link ferry across the water which is always fun.
Osborne House is a magnificent example of Italianate architecture.
Queen Victoria had been over to the Island for holidays when she was a child. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, used to rent Norris Castle, which was right next door to Osborne House.
She loved it there so much that in 1845 she and Prince Albert bought Osborne House for £28,000 from Lady Isabella Blachford.
Queen Victoria loved the fact that the house was so detached from the rest of the world, she loved how relaxing it was there. The view from the house of the Solent, apparently reminded her husband of the Bay of Naples in Italy. It is indeed a stunning view.
After moving in they decided that they needed to make the house larger for all their needs so they demolished the original 3 story house and began to rebuild. The building works went on from 1845 -1851. The house was designed by Thomas Cubitt into an Italian Renaissance Palazzo with two belvedere towers and is quite simply magnificent.
The vast gardens around the house lead down to a private beach. Queen Victoria had a private bathing machine on this beach which had a changing room, she used this to keep her dignity whilst wearing her swimsuit. There is a lovely cafe down on the beach now if you wander down to take in the views of the Solent.
After the death of Prince Albert in 1861 Queen Victoria spent a lot of time at Osborne House and she passed away at Osborne House in 1901 surrounded by her family. She asked that the house was to be kept in the family but Edward VII gave Osborne House to the nation in 1902. In 1986 the house was taken over by English Heritage.
The house is now Grade 1 listed and is on the register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
A Tour of the House
We thought we would go and take a look around the house first and were immediately struck by the grandeur of the whole house and how ornate everything was. Lots of huge paintings and statues and the ceilings were so decorative.
Dining room and drawing room
A lovely room which was used to entertain foreign royalty and to play cards in, play the piano and have a sing after dinner. It features huge mirrors, marble pillars and three cut glass chandeliers.
Billiard Room
This room has a magnificent slate billiard table in the middle. The walls are adorned by huge paintings and this was apparently primarily a room used by the gentlemen of the house who used to come and play billiards after dinner.
Council Room and Audience Room
This room was used for meetings and entertaining. It was in this room that Alexander Graham Bell first showed Queen Victoria his new invention of the Telephone in 1878. She was able to talk to people in Southampton and London !! In 1885 a telephone was installed in the house for the Queen to use.
Durbar Room
Queen Victoria was made the Empress of India in 1876 and her love of India grew from this. The Durbar Room at Osborne House was completely designed with an Indian feel. It was designed by Rudyard Kipling’s father, Lockwood Kipling. Although the Queen never went to India herself she took India to her heart and this really shows in this room.
The room is decorated with intricate Indian Style plaster work and it has an enormous banquet table in the middle. The word Durbar is a Hindi word for Court/ state reception.
This room today holds all of the Queen’s Indian possessions and portraits. It also has a fantastic plaster peacock over the fireplace.
It was recently featured in the film “Victoria and Abdul” starring Judi Dench. The film was about Queen Victoria’s friendship with Abdul Karim, one of the many Indian household staff. Abdul became her teacher of Urdu and she later made him her official Indian Secretary.
Bathrooms
The bathroom at Osborne House has a plumbed in bath, toilet and surprisingly a plumbed in shower which was very unusual for the time.
We loved wandering around the house and seeing how the Queen lived. She had a lot of up to date technology with the telephone and the plumbed in shower and toilet.
When we’d had a good look around the house we came out into the gardens and thought we would walk down the long path and take a look at the Swiss Cottage.
Swiss Cottage
A brisk walk away from the house finds the stunning Swiss Cottage which was built for their 9 children. The cottage is a copy of an original Swiss cottage and was once thought to have been brought over from Switzerland bit by bit, although now, reports do say it probably is a replica. It was built between 1853 and 1854 by Prince Albert.
The purpose of the cottage was to give their children a place to play and learn about housekeeping and cooking ( the cottage has a fully functioning kitchen) and gardening. The house is designed especially for children and everything is in miniature.
Each child was apparently given a separate vegetable plot to grow things in and the fruits of their labours were then to be sold to their father from a toy grocer’s shop, teaching them the value of things.
What a lovely way to let your children experience life away from their royal status. To learn how to cook and clean and to grow vegetables.
We walked back up the house but this time we came up the centre path that leads down to the beach. We had an amazing view of the house and the many fountains in the grounds.
The Gardens
The gardens at Osborne House are simply stunning and have amazing views from all angles. They are so well maintained and have seasonal plants in so that they are in bloom all year round.
There are plants there from all over the world and statues inter mingled with the flower beds. There’s a beautiful fountain on the lower terrace which was bought by the Queen in 1851 which is decorated with shells taken from Osborne’s beach. The fountain is surrounded by cherubs riding mythical sea creatures. It really is something.
The walled garden is an original feature of the house, before the Queen took residence there. They added some glass houses in order to grow trees and shrubs to later plant out in the wider grounds.
Just by the gardens is a lovely tea shop to stop and take in all the grounds.
Conclusion
Osborne House is definitely one of those places that you must put on your list to see. It is simply stunning and breathtaking in every way. We started with a tour of the house and took our time to see everything and then walked out into the vast gardens.
There’s plenty of places to sit and just take in the views from the house stretching right down to the beach. There’s also lots of cafes and places to eat in the grounds and there was an ice cream van in the grounds while we were there.
We walked down to the Swiss Cottage which was so lovely and then back up to the house. The grounds are huge so I would recommend wearing sensible walking shoes. There is a courtesy shuttle bus to take you down to the Cottage if you need it, which I thought was a lovely idea. We loved our visit.
The staff were really friendly, kind and courteous and were more than happy to answer any questions that you might have at any time. I left wanting to come back and see it again as it was so magnificent. I can see why Queen Victoria loved it there so much.
How to travel to the Isle of Wight
You can travel to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth or Southampton. If you are bringing a car over you can get a ferry or you can take the Hovercraft or Catamaran if you are just going on foot. The companies that run the ferries are Wightlink and Red Funnel.
The car ferries take about 45 minutes and the Catamaran is about 25 minutes and the Hovercraft only 10 minutes. The car ferries have great places to sit outside and take in the views of the Solent and cafes to grab a drink and a bite to eat.
Tip from the top: If you are planning a holiday or trip to the Island it is better to book early to get the best prices.
We love our trips over to the Island on the ferry. It’s exciting driving on and then climbing out of the car and making your way onto the top decks to watch the ferry slowly pulling away and heading towards the Island.
It really makes it feel like an extra special holiday, you almost feel like you are going abroad, but no passports are required.
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