Catalogue description Office of Works and successors: Osborne House: Registered Files

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Details of WORK 15
Reference: WORK 15
Title: Office of Works and successors: Osborne House: Registered Files
Description:

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.
Date: 1902-1975
Related material:

For related plans and drawings, see WORK 37
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: AE file series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

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
Physical description: 184 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 1935 Office of Works
Administrative / biographical background:

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.

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