Inside the private seaside retreat of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert - Osborne House

Hello, welcome to Through Lucy's Lens weekly videos where I go somewhere interesting and hopefully you will find them interesting too. I'm Lucy, social historian and incredibly nosy person. I am at somewhere you might not expect me to come today because as you know usually I'm looking at the lives of the normal people but I had to come here while I was on the Isle of Wight and I'm at Osborne House. As somebody that has been a lifelong lover of the Victorians you have to come and see where the head honcho lived don't you and yeah I mean I love it. I love these massive palatial places as much as the small working-class houses so I had to come, couldn't avoid it. So shall we go and see where Queen Vicky lived? Very excited, come on let's go. So let me welcome you to the beautiful Osborne House. I have been fascinated by Queen Victoria for as long as I can remember. There's something about her reign that feels both immense and intimate. A woman who began as a teenage monarch and presided over a rapidly changing world for more than 60 years. I think what drew me to her like many historians is her extraordinary contrast between her public image and her private self. Beneath that black clad figure of the widow of Windsor was a deeply feeling, often conflicted woman devoted to her family, opinionated and surprisingly modern. Her handwritten diaries are fascinating, they are full of emotion and detail and they make her feel like we can get to know her, like she's vividly alive. Not just a symbol of empire but a person, a human that navigated love, loss, duty and change. Victoria lived through and of course shaped one of the most pivotal eras in British history. But in her diaries you can catch her vulnerability and her stubborn humanity and that complexity is what keeps me coming back to the story of Queen Victoria and why I felt I needed to visit her family home Osborne House. Osborne House stands on the northeast coast of the Isle of Wight and for overseas viewers the Isle of Wight is a small island off the south coast of England. From the Isle of Wight you can look across the Solent to the Hampshire shore on the mainland. Today Osborne is best known as Queen Victoria's favourite retreat but the story of Osborne actually started before the royal purchase in 1845. The estate takes its name from Osborne Farm and this is actually recorded in medieval deeds. In 1774 a large Georgian villa was built here for a local Robert Pope Blatchford. After his death the property passed through the Blatchford family but by the 1840s it belonged to a Lady Isabella Blatchford. This was his daughter-in-law. The house sat in about 250 acres with terraced gardens that ran down to a shingle beach. It was comfortably grand but not palatial yet crucially it was also for sale. Queen Victoria's doctor had advised her that the royal children needed cleaner air than what they could get in London or Windsor. So on the 15th of October 1845 Victoria and Prince Albert crossed to the island to inspect the property at Osborne. That evening Queen Victoria noted in her journal that we walked over the grounds of Osborne which is the name of the place we're going to purchase from Lady Blatchford. The view is beautiful. The sale price was £28,000 and that's about £3 million in today's money. Within weeks the contracts were signed and Osborne became a private royal estate paid for from the Queen's civil list income. The existing villa at Osborne proved too small for the growing family and visiting staff. Albert who'd studied architecture in Germany sketched an entirely new house in the fashionable Italian style. A London builder called Thomas Cubitt already working on the east front of Buckingham Palace took charge of the construction. Work began on the Osborne we see today in June 1845 with a square pavilion facing the sea. By 1851 the skyline here was dominated by two towers whose lookout galleries framed what Victoria called her own little paradise. Throughout the work Victoria's diary records progress. On the 27th of June 1846 she wrote the new house grows rapidly. Albert watches every brick. The gardens were also reshaped with John Fleming being the head gardener in charge. He created terraces, formal gardens and planted specimen trees alongside Albert. He built hot houses that supplied pineapples and grapes to the royal table and a private railway siding on the Cowes and Newport line delivered furniture and building equipment direct to the estate. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert used Osborne house chiefly from late July to early September and they would visit again for a short spring break. Here Victoria could put the formality of court life behind her and their life could relax. The Queen rose early here where she would walk the terraces and spend her day sketching and creating art. Albert organised family theatricals and oversaw model farming on the home farm. The meals that they ate while they were at Osborne were simple, by court standards of course. They would eat cold meats, fruit from the walled gardens and plenty of German dishes that were favoured by Albert. The 1851 household accounts list 110 resident staff here in high season. From grooms and horse people, governesses to gardeners, dairy maids and cooks. It's a real shame that there's no servants quarters here on display because for me that would really enrich a visit to the house. A family routine emerges in Victoria's diary of 1852. During the summer she wrote lessons for the children with tutors, German conversation practice after lunch, then pony rides or trips to the beach. After lunch we all went down to the sea. The children paddled and Albert sketched the coast beyond the spithead. Such hours are the happiest I know. I really enjoyed the upstairs rooms on display at Osborne the most and first is Prince Albert's dressing room with Prince Albert's deep marble bath. Albert was known for his enthusiasm for cleanliness and personal hygiene, something that was actually less common in aristocratic circles at the time. I couldn't help but wonder do the photographs above the bath display a cheeky side to Albert. When Albert sadly died on the 14th of December 1861, this room was left as it was to that day, never to be touched again. One of the most touching details in this room is the presence of a desk shared between Albert and Victoria. They would often sit next to each other working side by side. Victoria's desk is slightly lower than Albert's and Victoria wrote her journal here with affection about these moments spent together. When Albert died she continued to use her desk but removed the call bells from Albert's side to refer to him no longer being there. Queen Victoria's dressing room located just next to Albert's is another personal space. Here she would be attended to by her dressers and ladies-in-waiting but it was also somewhere where she could get some privacy, where she could have quieter times away from the court formality. One remarkable feature of Victoria's dressing room is an early shower, a rare example of Victorian plumbing technology installed during the later years of Albert's life. I think no room in Osborne is as emotionally charged as Queen Victoria's bedroom. It was here that of course her and Prince Albert spent time together but when Albert died on the 14th of December 1861 at the age of just 42, Victoria recreated the room in which he died at Windsor in this room at Osborne as a shrine to his memory. After his death the room remained almost untouched, the bed was left exactly as it had been with Albert's nightshirt still folded and his shaving water still symbolically laid out. Victoria continued to sleep in this room surrounded by portraits, relics and mementos of their life together. Also in this room Queen Victoria died on the 22nd of January 1901. Although not in this bed as many believe because a smaller bed had been brought in to protect her dignity and allow for her to be nursed during her illness. The large bronze plinth behind the bed was placed there after her death and was designed by her daughter-in-law Alexandra who became the Queen Consort after Victoria's death. I'm not ashamed to admit I felt incredibly moved standing in this space where all that separates us is time. Also upstairs you can see Queen Victoria's lift or ascending chair, it was installed later in Victoria's reign. Her mobility declined and this lift that was operated by a pulley system allowed her to reach the upper floors in the house more comfortably. Back downstairs is the breathtaking Durbar room, it was designed by Rudyard Kipling's father Lockwood Kipling and also master carver Bhai Ram Singh and it was constructed as part of the Durbar suite in 1891. This amazing room is detailed with intricate Indian style plasterwork to reflect Queen Victoria's status as Empress of India. This room was the venue for ceremonial dinners, state banquets, for royalty and dignitaries and was also the backdrop to Queen Victoria's favourite entertainments. Throughout the room Indian gifts are displayed in cabinets which unfortunately you're unable to photograph due to their priceless nature. From the house itself from the south terrace a winding path leads through oak woodlands to Osborne's shingle private beach. In 1847 Queen Victoria ordered a timber bathing machine that was painted in royal blue, unfortunately it's being restored at the moment so wasn't actually on display during my visit but this bathing machine could be run into the water on rails so Victoria could bathe in the sea away from the public gaze. On the 22nd of July 1847 she wrote, drove to the beach and had my first saltwater bath. Delightful to feel the waves though a little alarmed when the machine rolled out so far. The beach also served diplomatic purposes, foreign guests could be rowed across the Solent from Portsmouth to land on the Royal Jetty. This meant they could avoid the slower train carriage journey from Southampton. A mile from the main house in a sheltered dell Albert built the Swiss Cottage. Swiss Cottage was built between 1853 and 1854. It was constructed by estate carpenters to a Swiss chalet plan. It was actually used as a practical classroom. Each royal child had a plot in the adjoining garden where they grew strawberries and cabbages and sold the produce to their father for the market rate. They also received tuition in horticulture and economics and inside the cottage is a perfect little reconstruction of a kitchen and areas where the children could make food. On the 11th of July 1854 Victoria wrote, the children dined in their Swiss Cottage and served us with their own vegetables. Vicky's lettuces were excellent. Nearby Swiss Cottage you can also see the Albert Barrack and this is a miniature military installation built as part of Prince Albert's educational visit for his sons. It was constructed in 1856 and it was intended to give the princes military training. It was seen by Albert as a way to install discipline, patriotism and leadership in a controlled but playful environment. Here the princes would perform marching drills, mock battles or manoeuvres using child-sized weapons but overseen by real military officers and wearing real miniature uniforms. Some of the princes enjoyed this education more than others. Albert Edward who later became Edward VII famously chafed under his father's discipline and did not enjoy the rigid structure imposed on him. He often underperformed and was criticised harshly by both his parents. Other sons however like Prince Arthur became professional soldiers and actually thrived under this military style upbringing. The princes and princesses would also undertake duties at Swiss Cottage such as gardening and growing produce and you can still see the shed containing their own personal initialed wheelbarrows. There's also a gazelle shed which is now used as a snack bar but this housed gazelles and other exotic animals Prince Albert brought back from his tour of Egypt in 1862. Not quite the usual childhood pets. Prince Albert died at Windsor on the 14th of December 1861. Six months later Victoria returned to Osborne writing, all is desolate yet I feel his presence most strongly here where every tree speaks of him. Queen Victoria spent up to five months a year at Osborne after Prince Albert died finding it quieter and more restful than Windsor or Buckingham Palace. Estate life continued with Victoria swathed in her black widow's garb but the children were still here and her grandchildren learned to sail on the Solent just like their mothers and fathers before them. Queen Victoria died in her bedroom at Osborne on the 22nd of January 1901. Her son Edward VII found the house far too personal to use in fact it was said he absolutely hated it here and in 1902 he gave most of the estate to the nation. Some of it became part of the Royal Naval College and this was open between 1903 and 1921. The main house opened to the public in 1904 under the Office of Works. Today Osborne is looked after by English Heritage. As a visitor here you can still walk the terraces Albert designed, see the beach, see the incredible state rooms and step inside the Swiss Cottage where most of the royal children would have once played. Unfortunately Swiss Cottage has been seeing some signs of disrepair so a lot of it at the moment is closed so please bear that in mind if you visit Osborne. Osborne remains one of the most personal royal residences and standing in Queen Victoria's bedroom it moved me because I'd seen it so many times on TV series and read about it so to actually be there was very moving to me. Osborne was actually never meant to project imperial power it was first and foremost a family retreat. It was built by Victoria and Albert to reflect their shared ideals of domestic comfort and a kind of childhood innocence and how they felt they could project the virtues of a stable loving household. Of course it is still sensationally grand particularly compared to the homes I like to visit on this channel but nevertheless walking its corridors I felt like I encountered the traces of a very human story and I very much enjoyed it and was glad that I came. That said the absence of the visible servant spaces, the kitchens, the sculleries, the quarters of many of the people who made this royal house function did leave the interpretation incomplete for me. This is mainly in part because once the house was gifted to the nation a lot of the house was used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers for many years so lots of the servants quarters were stripped out so I'm going to let it go just this once. If you enjoyed this video please do drop a like, I love to read your comments and it really does help me if you tell people about the channel, share and of course subscribe if you can, it's completely free. I am on a mission to make history accessible, if you want to join me in my little crusade please become a part of the amazing community in our comments. Until next week thank you as always for joining me through my lens and I'll see you again soon, goodbye.