Left: Osbourne House, Queen Victoria's much-treasured holiday home on the Isle of Wight. © English Heritage
Queen Victoria’s principal entertaining rooms at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, will re-open to the public on April 3, 2003.
This follows the completion of a two-year project by English Heritage to re-present the rich Renaissance-style Drawing Room and Billiard Room just as Queen Victoria and her family would have enjoyed them.
For the first time in a hundred years, pictures and sculptures from the Royal Collection will return to these rooms following their removal after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901.
Right: view of the Durbar Room, May 2001. © English Heritage. Photographer James Davies
The re-presentation of these rooms marks the completion of a five-year, £7 million English Heritage project at Osborne House (from 1999 to 2003) undertaken to honour the centenary of the death of Queen Victoria in 2001.
The centenary project included the restoration and re-presentation of the Durbar Room, the Durbar Corridor and the Dining Room, completed in 2001, as well as re-painting the exterior walls.
Architect Peter Inskip of Inskip and Jenkins, has overseen the re-presentation of the Drawing Room and Billiard Room, and English Heritage has managed a team of historic specialists and craftspeople.
Paint and plaster restorers have re-worked parts of the elaborate ceiling, historic textile consultants have recreated the late-nineteenth century amber-coloured silk curtains and soft furnishings, and conservators have preserved and restored delicate giltwood furniture.
Left: the newly restored hallway at Osborne. © English Heritage. Picture Matt Morton
Among the works of art from the Royal Collection to return to the rooms are "The Sleeping Spinner", a marble sculpture by F. Troschel.
This was given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert on her birthday on 24th May 1846. Also returning is "Glycera", a marble sculpture by R.J. Wyatt, given by Queen Victoria to her husband at Christmas in 1850.
Right: dusting down an opulent cut glass chandelier in the re-decorated Renaissance-style Drawing Room. © English Heritage. Pic Phil Yeomans
Other striking additions include copies of the opulent cut-glass chandeliers, originally commissioned and partly designed by Prince Albert, and a recreation of the huge 1840s French Aubusson carpet, measuring 19 metres by 8 metres, which has taken over six months to weave by hand.
The Drawing Room and Billiard Room, designed as adjoining his and hers rooms, were central to Queen Victoria’s social life at Osborne.
Her Majesty would retire after dinner to the Drawing Room with her female guests to relax, play cards or sing and play at the piano. Prince Albert could remain within ear-shot in the Billiard Room, playing billiards and talking with male guests and friends.
Celebrated musicians gave recitals in the Drawing Room, including Swedish soprano Jenny Lind (1820-87), who appeared at Osborne in 1847, three months after making her London début.
Left: the newly restored hallway leading to the Durbar Room. © English Heritage. Pic Matt Morton.
Prince Albert designed the billiard table which stands in the centre of the Billiard Room complete with a low lamp (electrified in the 1890s) to ensure the best possible light for his game.
Paint conservators have restored the billiard table’s decorative frieze panels and legs, which were painted in a marble effect. Queen Victoria also learnt to play billiards at Osborne and her journal records games with the ladies of the Household after luncheon.
It's not known if Her Majesty required players to line up 50 pence pieces along the edge of the table like you do in pubs these days.
