With the news that the public are allowed access to Queen Victoria beach at Osborne on the Isle of Wight
English heritage have recreated this very fine bathing hut – it has overtones of this years Graden office winner Bostin Betty– and would love to have a place like this to get into my woolen bathing costume ready for a dip in the sea.
Queen Victoria’s private beach at Osborne, her seaside home on the Isle of Wight, will open to the public for the first time from Friday 27 July. “We have quite a charming beach to ourselves,” Victoria wrote in 1845 and it was here that the Queen regularly bathed and where her children learned to swim.
English Heritage has returned to the beach the original wooden bathing machine which ran down a ramp into the sea and from which Victoria – her modesty preserved – would emerge in her swimming suit. English Heritage has also restored the small covered seat – The Queen’s Alcove – where she sat and sketched the coastal views.
It was at Osborne beach that Queen Victoria swam in the sea for the first time. “I thought it delightful till I put my head under water, when I thought I should be stifled,” she wrote and visitors will also be able to paddle and take a dip in the Solent.
Queen Victoria’s beach at Osborne on the Isle of Wight will open on Friday 27 July 2012. Osborne – house, grounds and beach – will be open daily from 10am until 4 November, with limited opening over winter. A mini bus service to the beach will run daily until 30 September and then weekends only, October – 4 November.
Entry to Osborne is free to English Heritage members.
Non-members: £13.00 for adults (£11.70 for concessions), £7.80 for children and £33.80 for families (2 adults and up to 3 children).
In other news you can view Shackleton’s & Scott’s Hut in 360 degress thanks to google according to the BBC
Images of the Antarctic huts used by polar explorers Sir Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott have been posted online as part of the latest extension to Google’s Maps service.
The prefabricated wooden cabins were erected in 1908 and 1911 respectively, and were used as bases for the men’s attempts to reach the south pole.
