Office of Works and successors: Osborne House: Registered Files

WORK 15

1902-1975

This series contains correspondence and papers relating to the administration of the Osborne estate on the Isle of Wight, including Osborne House and other buildings, and the Royal Naval College.

Some files date from after the creation of the Department of the Environment and the Property Services Agency.

For related plans and drawings, see WORK 37

AE file series

Public Record(s)

English

• Department of the Environment, 1970-1997
• Ministry of Public Building and Works, Controller Generals Division, 1967-1970
• Ministry of Public Building and Works, Directorate General of Works, 1962-1967
• Ministry of Works and Buildings, Directorate of Works, 1940-1942
• Ministry of Works and Planning, Directorate of Works, 1942-1943
• Ministry of Works, Directorate General of Works, 1946-1962
• Ministry of Works, Directorate of Works, 1943-1945
• Office of Works, 1851-1940
• Office of Works, Architects and Surveyors Division, 1902-1914
• Office of Works, Architects Division, 1914-1920
• Office of Works, Directorate of Works, 1920-1940
• Office of Works, Surveyors Division, 1901-1901
• Property Services Agency, Directorate of Civil Accommodation, 1976-1990

184 file(s)

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

From 1935 Office of Works

Topics

Navy

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought Osborne House on the Isle of Wight as a private retreat in 1845, and replaced the existing house with a grander mansion designed by Thomas Cubitt. After the Queen's death in 1901 King Edward VII gave the house to the nation,; it came under the control of the Office of Works in 1903, under the terms of the Osborne Estate Act 1902. The Act provided for the private royal apartments to remain as when they had been in royal occupation; the rest of the house was to be used as a convalescent home for officers and civil servants. The private royal suite was opened to full public access in 1954.

The Royal Naval College at Osborne was transferred to the control of the Admiralty Works Department in 1910, but in 1920 was returned to the Office of Works. In 1926 it was transferred to the Commissioners of Crown Lands. Following its return to the Ministry of Works in 1945 it was demolished.