Osborne Arms

The Osborne Arms like its namesakes elsewhere around the country, notably in High Wycombe, Cambridge and Reading, almost certainly took its name from the house on the Isle of Wight that Queen Victoria bought with her husband Prince Albert in 1845 (although the politician George Osborne, the 6th Duke of Leeds and Master of the Horse 1827-30 is another possible source of inspiration).

The royal couple had holidayed at Osborne House the year before and young Victoria had enjoyed earlier holidays on the island as a Princess. It wasn’t long before Victoria and Albert outgrew the original property and the Italianate design of the new, enlarged Osborne House had a major impact on mid-nineteenth century English architecture.

It would seem that No.4 Arundel Crescent operated as a beer retailer from its earliest days and further that it stopped trading soon after the beginning of the First World War.

Licensees

1873 - Richard Kitt
1877 - SA Reeves
1880 - W Clark
1885 - Thomas Talling
1907 - WG Stewart
1911 - Agnes Sitters
1914 - WJ Sleep