Osborne House

Details

WHIPPINGHAM ROAD 1. 5270 East Cowes Osborne House SZ 59 SW 7/123 I GV 2. The present house dates from 1845, and is built on the site of an C18 house built by Robert Pope Blanchford and sold by Lady Isabella Blanchford to Queen Victoria in 1845 who promptly had it demolished. The new house was designed by Prince Albert but Thomas Cubitt was the builder and probably to some extent the architect. Large irregular house in Italianate style built of brick cement faced, strengthened with iron girders. The Pavilion Wing was completed in 1846 and the Household Wing in 1851. In the 1890s the Durbar Wing was added, and this was built by Bhai Ram Singh and John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's father. The architect was J R Mann. The entrance front is the south-west side. The south-west wing here forms an L. Its south-west front has 3 storeys and basement with balustraded area. Seven windows. Stringcourses, modillion cornice and balustraded parapet. Windows in moulded architrave surrounds with cornices and brackets over and glazing bars intact. At each end of the ground floor is a bay of 3 windows with a balustraded parapet over surmounted by 2 statues. The north-west front of this L has 11 windows, round-headed windows on the ground floor, flanked by rusticated pilasters. On the lst floor is a loggia running the whole length of the front, having 11 round-headed openings shaped like Venetian windows with Ionic columns, each opening flanked by Ionic pilasters. Dentilled cornice and parapet over the loggia, surmounted by urns, which forms a balcony. Modillion cornice above the 2nd floor and parapet over. This wing of the south-east courtyard is joined to the centre block of the north-west courtyard by one window bay of 2 storeys similar to the north-west face of the loggia wing. Then comes the Flag Tower, 107 feet high of 5 storeys with bracket cornices above the third floor and at the top. Round-headed window on the ground floor and 3-light windows on the top floor. The remainder of this centre block has 4 windows. The windows have moulded architrave surrounds with pediments over and glazing bars intact. This centre is joined to the north-west wing of the courtyard by a portion of 2 storeys and 2 windows with loggia as on the south-east. The north-west wing is known as the Durbar wing and was added after 1897 to contain all the Indian gifts made to the Queen at her Diamond Jubilee. The wing has 2 storeys and 4 windows. The south-westernmost window bay is recessed. The reminder are flanked by Ionic pilasters with a cornice above the ground floor and a cornice and parapet above the 1st floor. Windows similar to the other wings but these on the ground floor flanked by engaged Corinthian columns. On the garden front the centre block of the north-west courtyard has 3 storeys and 5 windows with a curved bay of 3 windows in the centre. This has a stuccoed balcony with hood on the 1st floor. Behind this Was Queen Victoria's bedroom which was the room in Which she died on 22 January l901. The garden front of the north-east wing of the other courtyard has 3 storeys and 9 windows with a Venetian window in the centre. It ends in a portion of lower elevation containing 2 storeys and 3 windows, like the loggia portion on the north-west front, and another tower of 5 storeys with a 2 light window on each floor and a bracket eaves cornice at the top. In front of this wing is a terraced Italian garden. To the south-east are extensive service wings. The interior contains a well staircase with iron balustrade and a fresco of Neptune entrusting the Command of the Sea to Britannia, executed by Dyce in 1847. The State rooms on the ground floor have Georgian style motifs. The Durbar wing has walls covered with Indian plaster decoration and peacock overmantel to the fireplace. Osborne House is listed for its architectural interest and historical interest as the home of the Victorian Royal Family and the death place of both Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. The house is now partly a museum and partly a convalescent home for civil servants.

Listing NGR: SZ5159294802

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

419663

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 23 Isle of Wight,

End of official list entry

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