Jane Austen hotel to become student accommodation

A closed Grade II listed hotel, with links to Jane Austen, will be converted into student accommodation.

Southampton's Dolphin Hotel, said to have hosted the novelist's 18th birthday in its ballroom, will be adapted into 99 bedrooms for students.

The hotel, which also welcomed Queen Victoria and Admiral Lord Nelson, was most recently used as accommodation for asylum seekers.

Southampton City Council granted permission for the revamp to Dolphin Hotel Property Limited on Tuesday.

A plaque on the wall near the hotel's entrance details its associations with Jane Austen.

The plaque states that according to Jane's letters, in addition to her birthday celebrations, the author also returned to the hotel's ballroom on two more occasions for dances.

The council's planning officers said the revamp would retain the nature of the building.

They said: "This use is the best use. It is not going to result in any historic changes or have any visible impact on the conservation area."

Built on the city's High Street more than 500 years ago, the mid-terraced, four-storey building with a basement, is believed to be Southampton's oldest hotel.

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