The Bugle

In 1846, Vice-Commodore Robert Wright commissioned this Italianate townhouse for the Royal Southern Yacht Club, and his portrait still hangs there today, though the club moved on decades ago. After hosting regattas overlooking the Royal Pier, the building was requisitioned by the Admiralty during WWII for its strategic waterfront position. Post-war, it became offices for Southampton University’s Air Squadron until 2013, then sat abandoned until a painstaking restoration revealed ornate carved cherubs and Victorian crests hidden beneath decades of institutional paint.

The house reopened in 2023 under a new name: The Bugle, after the street it sits on. Wonder House Group turned it into what it now calls the most beautiful Victorian building in the city, a blank canvas for weddings, shoots, and overnight stays, sleeping sixteen across eight bedrooms with a basement bar tucked below. Wright never got to see his regatta headquarters host a wedding reception. He did, at least, get the view right.