This week sees part four of my Osborne House tour go live, and this week I’m focusing on the nursery sitting room and bedroom!

The nursery suite at Osborne House helps provide an insight into Victoria and Albert’s relationship with their children. The suite was placed immediately above Victoria and Albert’s private apartments which helped give them quick and easy access to the children – who remained in the nursery suite, normally, until the age of six. The first and second room originally formed the sitting room and bedroom of Lady Lyttleton – the superintendent of the royal children up to 1851. Her role was a varied one, and in 1849 she described a range of her duties:

“Accounts, tradesmen’s letters, maids’ quarrels, bad fitting of frocks, desirableness of rhubarb and magnesia, and, by way of intellectual pursuits, false French genders and elements of the multiplication table.”

Lady Lyttleton on her job roles, 1849

Nursery Sitting Room

This first room became the schoolroom for the children of Prince and Princess Henry of Battenburg in the 1890s. It has since been resotred as the nursery sitting room, and here framed photographs demonstrate how the present royal families of Europe – reigning and exiled – are descended from Queen Victoria.

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In their twenty-one year marriage, Victoria and Albert had nine children, and they had very ambitious plans for dynastic marriages. They aimed to create a network of diplomatic and royal marriages that, they hoped, would secure some peace and stability throughout Europe.

Nursery Bedroom

The third room – the nursery bedroom – was visited frequently by Victoria and Albert. It has since been restored to match its appearance in a photograph taken in around 1873 by Jabez Hughes, who recorded much of the interior at Osborne. Here, we see that none of the original decoration has survived – the wallpaper, carpet and curtains are all modern.

Many of the paintings – a lot originally hung here – often had special meanings to Victoria and the rest of the family. Above the cot we see a portrait of Albert, also in the room is a copy of a sketch by Victoria of Eos (Albert’s favourite greyhound)

“All round the room are literally stacks of toys”

A member of the household regarding the nursery bedroom, c1890s

Almost all that remains in the nursery bedroom today are belongings of Princess Louise and Princess Helena, along with a copy of a German original of the mid 19th century doll-house. The remaining rooms on this floor were then used as maids’ bedrooms and the nursery kitchen.

It was completely fascinating going into the nursery suite to get a feel of what life at Osborne would have been like for the children of Victoria and Albert, whilst also seeing the replications of particular items in the rooms!

Next week I’ll be moving away from the nursery and instead will be focusing on the staircase and pages’ alcove.