Inside the Controversial Plan to Turn a Hotel Where Jane Austen Attended Balls Into Student Dorms

When she was just shy of 33, Jane Austen attended a ball at the Dolphin Hotel in Southampton, England. Judging by a letter she wrote to her sister, Cassandra, in 1808, she had a decent, if unremarkable, time:

Martha [Lloyd] liked it very much, and I did not gape till the last quarter of an hour. It was past 9 before we were sent for, and not 12 when we returned. The room was tolerably full, and there were, perhaps, 30 couple of dancers. The melancholy part was to see so many dozen young women standing by without partners, and each of them with two ugly naked shoulders.

It was Austen’s second visit to the Dolphin. She had celebrated her 18th birthday at the hotel in 1793, about 15 years earlier. Based on these events, some contemporary readers consider the venue a key stop on Austen pilgrimages.

Earlier this month, the Southampton City Council approved plans to convert the Dolphin into dormitories. The decision has unsettled Austen devotees, who have been protesting the proposal, sometimes in Regency costume, for months.

The Dolphin was a historic structure even in Austen’s day. It has existed since at least 1550 (and perhaps even earlier); by 1750, it had become a thriving social hub. Many of its most recognizable features—like the large bow windows—were added around 1760. Austen was by no means the Dolphin’s only famous guest. The hotel hosted the likes of novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, historian Edward Gibbon and even Queen Victoria.

But Austen has something that Thackeray, Gibbon and Victoria lack: a devoted 21st-century fan base.

That’s why the Regency-era novelist is so entwined with the hotel’s lore. It’s why the Dolphin has signage detailing Austen’s visits to the premises. And it’s why, when officials announced plans to convert the historic hotel into student housing, many so-called Janeites were crushed.

Critics of the plan include members of the Sarah Siddons Fan Club, a Southampton-based historical reenactment theater company named for a famous 18th-century actress (who happens to be mentioned in Austen’s letters). “As soon as I found out about it, I contacted our theater group so they knew what to do … objection, objection, objection,” Norma Mackey, a retired healthcare worker and member of the company, said earlier this year, per the Guardian’s Steven Morris. “They will lose a gem.”

Many others submitted objections during a public comment period. Jennifer Weinbrecht, the owner of Jane Austen Books in Ohio, asked officials to “consider the cultural importance of the Dolphin [Hotel] as the only remaining structure in Southampton with Jane Austen connections.”

Meanwhile, some Austen fans took a middle-ground approach. “Whilst we are not enthusiastic about this proposed change of use, it does mean that the building will have a future, which it currently does not,” wrote the Hampshire branch of the Jane Austen Society. “We are realistic in our recognition of there being no available funds to develop this building into a heritage asset. However, we would hope this important historic site will not be completely lost to those of us who love Jane Austen and her novels.”

The Dolphin’s fortunes have been mixed in recent decades. The hotel was closed for the duration of a £4 million redevelopment, eventually reopening in 2010 under the Mercure brand. In 2021, it closed once again due to a “significant drop in occupancy.” It hasn’t been accessible to guests since then, though it briefly served as a shelter for asylum seekers.

According to BBC News’ Jason Lewis, developers have vowed to maintain the building’s historic character. They are also planning to create a “museum or interpretation center” dedicated to Austen. “A plaque in the lobby seems likely,” writes Literary Hub’s Brittany Allen. “And the dining hall and ground floor will allegedly be available to the public ‘by appointment.’”

Such measures are unlikely to satisfy Austen fans in Southampton, some of whom feel linked to the author via her two brief visits to the hotel. Cheryl Butler, founder of the Sarah Siddons Fan Club, tells the Telegraph’s Albert Tait that Austen stayed in Southampton during “quite important periods of her life,” which were “critical times in her development as a writer.”

Indeed, when Austen was 19, around a year after her first visit to the Dolphin in 1793, she started working on Sense and Sensibility. When she returned in late 1808, she was still unpublished. In 1809, however, she began seriously revising Sense and Sensibility, ultimately publishing the novel—her first—in 1811.

In the 1808 letter to Cassandra, Austen reflected on the passage of time between her visits to the venue.

“It was the same room in which we danced 15 years ago,” she wrote. “I thought it all over, and in spite of the shame of being so much older, felt with thankfulness that I was quite as happy now as then.”

Ellen Wexler | | READ MORE

Ellen Wexler is Smithsonian magazine’s assistant digital editor, humanities.