Osborne

I love the royals and the only thing I wanted to do on our holiday on the Isle of Wight was visit Osborne House.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought the Osborne estate on the Isle of wight in 1845. It was built as a family home rather than a palace. Lived in for only 55 years, Osborne reflects Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's passions, tastes and style. Ornate furnishings and artefacts from The Royal Collection fill rooms and corridors where Victoria entertained heads of state, inventors, princess and princesses and ruled the vast British Empire.

The Calydonian boar at the entrance to the household wing

As you enter the household wing you find yourself in the grand corridor that links the household and main wings, and Victoria's private apartments. I was unable to take many pictures of this bit due to poor lighting (not flash photography was aloud!) and it was so busy which is a shame because the rooms were beautiful.

Once finished in the household wing we enter the pavilion which houses the principal rooms; dining, drawing and billiard rooms as well as the queen's private rooms and the childrens nursery.

I was able to take some pictures of the dining and drawing room as there was a little more light.

The dining room is the home of a large a copy of the exquisite family portrait of Victoria, Albert and her children by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. It was in this room that Victoria’s body lay in state in 1901, before being taken to her funeral at Windsor.

The Drawing Room is decorated sympathetically to the 1890s with yellow satin curtains, full-length mirrors and a pair of cut-glass chandeliers that were give to Victoria for one of her birthdays. Foreign royalty were often received in this room on formal occasions but the queen also used it to play cards, to sing and play the piano with members of the royal household after dinner.

After we visited these beautiful rooms we were taken up the servants back stairs that gave access to the upper falls where we went into the nursery.

The nursery bedroom was recreated as it was in a photograph of 1873.

After visiting the nursery we walked down the Queens staircase to her and Alberts rooms on the first floor.

The grand staircase was modelled on that at Claremont House. On the wall is the large fresco Neptune Resigning the Empire of the seas to Britannia by William Dyce.

Queen Victoria's sitting room house her and Alberts desks side by side with a rather sensual painting, Florinda by F X Winterhalter which was bought in 1852 by the Queen for Albert's birthday.

After walking through the Queen's dressing room, seein where she bathes and her own private lift we come to her bedroom where on the 22nd January 1901 she died surrounded by her children. For the next 50 years the bedroom was set up as a family shrine, with a bronze memorial plaque on the headboard.

After we finished inside we had a walk around the grounds and walk to the Queen's private beach.

All in all a lovely place to visit, if you would more information visit the english Heritage website here

Thank you for reading, as always!