Osborne House

Osborne House
North façade
Location within Isle of Wight
General information
Architectural style	Italian Renaissance
Location	Isle of Wight
Town or city	East Cowes
Country	United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°45′02″N 1°16′11″W / 50.750546°N 1.269730°W / 50.750546; -1.269730
Construction started	1845
Completed	1851
Design and construction
Architect	Prince Albert (designer)
Engineer	Thomas Cubitt (builder)

Coordinates: 50°45′02″N 1°16′11″W / 50.750546°N 1.26973°W / 50.750546; -1.26973

Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Prince Albert designed the house himself in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. The builder was Thomas Cubitt, the London architect and builder whose company built the main façade of Buckingham Palace for the royal couple in 1847. An earlier smaller house on the site was demolished to make way for a new and far larger house, though the original entrance portico survives as the main gateway to the walled garden.

Queen Victoria died at Osborne House in January 1901. Following her death, the house became surplus to royal requirements and was given to the state, with a few rooms being retained as a private museum to Queen Victoria. From 1903 until 1921 it was used as a junior officer training college for the Royal Navy, known as the Royal Naval College, Osborne. In 1998 training were consolidated at the Britannia Royal Naval College, now at Dartmouth. Osborne House is open to the public for tours.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought Osborne House on the Isle of Wight from Lady Isabella Blachford in October 1845. They wanted a home removed from the stresses of court life. Queen Victoria had spent two holidays on the Isle of Wight as a young girl, when her mother, the then Duchess of Kent, rented Norris Castle, the estate next door to Osborne. The setting of the three-storey Georgian house appealed to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; in particular, the views of the Solent reminded Albert of the Bay of Naples in Italy. They soon realized that the house was too small for their needs. They decided with advisors to replace the house with a new, larger residence.