Page 33 - Yachter Winter 2019

RECOLLECTIONS OF PREVIOUS ROYAL SOUTHAMPTON YACHT CLUBS
Longstanding RSYC member John Parkhouse has known the Club through several incarnations, since his childhood, as our first premises in Above Bar were across the road from his family’s Jewellery business. By the time he became MD we were in Northlands Road, where the Club was a main hub of Southampton business life.....
My first sight of the RSYC was in Above Bar, Southampton where the Victorian Clubhouse was almost opposite our family business, the Jewellers Parkhouse and Wyatt. Although I was then too young to venture inside, I do remember the splendour of
the Club’s first building, which was sold for development when RSYC moved to Northlands Road in the 1960s.
The new location was the former Court Royal Hotel, set in lovely grounds. It had been a favourite venue for dances, wedding receptions and other social events.The grounds looked out onto Southampton Common, whilst the front was almost opposite the County Cricket Ground.
The hotel had a splendid ballroom with a resident band, George and Billy Reid, and
at times featured the famous trumpet player, Nat Gonella. It was an excellent site for the Club to purchase, with extensive car parking and plenty of interior space including two bars – one for Members Only. (Ed:This
also of course meant Men Only, as at that time
ladies were excluded from Membership; Family Members and female guests were restricted to the other bar and the dining room) The former ballroom became the Dining Room, with bay windows overlooking the attractive gardens. It also featured an ample and very popular snooker room and had offices upstairs plus flats which were rented out.
When I became a Member, over 50
years ago, the Dining Room was important because at that time nearly all businesses
and professions closed at lunchtime. So, the RSYC became a focal point for prominent businessmen to meet socially for lunch. Not for nothing was the Club known informally as the ‘Royal Commercial Yacht Club’! Apart from tables for members to entertain family and friends, there was one long table at the far end known as ‘The Club Table’. Here Members sat together for their lunch and
it was a meeting point for Southampton businessmen, solicitors, accountants and other professionals.
I still have half a dozen friends from those
days, when life was more tranquil and the modern practice of lunch being a sandwich at one’s desk had still to emerge. Eventually of course Northlands Road was sold when times changed, usage decreased and financial pressures plus the opportunity to be part of a new waterside development dictated the transfer to OceanVillage.The more leisured atmosphere was lost in the move.
John Parkhouse
RSYC BECAME A FOCAL POINT FOR PROMINENT BUSINESSMEN TO MEET SOCIALLY FOR LUNCH
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