Journal

Love poured: a Victorian sail loft turned family home and wine bar in south Cornwall

February 2nd, 2026

Words Meg Abbott
Photography Stuart Elkins and Arran Busk

The best kind of bar feels like being invited into someone’s home. So it’s unsurprising that The Neighbourhood – a wine bar run out of a family house near the head of the Penryn River in Cornwall – feels like visiting an old friend. Ernest and Marisa Capbert bought this Victorian sail loft four years ago, working with an architect to fill the interior with the kind of natural light that can be hard to find in buildings of this shape and age. Like all great things, the idea for The Neighbourhood was born from something simple. In this case, the love of opening up a bottle of good wine and sharing it with good people. “I don’t know anything about wine.” Ernest laughs. “I guess opening a bar in our own home gave us that confidence, in the sense that you always feel more comfortable in your own home.” The bar quickly became part of the town’s fabric – a place to gather and unwind. As it comes to market, its owners recall its gradual transformation into a community hub and happy family home ...

Ernest: “Marisa is from Falmouth originally, and we were living somewhere really quiet when she first saw the house. She said, ‘I’ve seen this place in Penryn’. So I cycled down and when I got to the house it really didn’t look like much. There were three people living in it and there was already a developer who was interested in turning it into three apartments. But Marisa came in with all these ideas. To be honest, my first thought was ‘Why?!’ But she had the vision – she always does!

“It’s an old sail loft built in 1850 to house huge sails for a variety of different boats. We knew we wanted to stay true to the original proportions and fabric of the building so we worked with an architect – a friend of a friend based in New York. He had never worked on an old building like this before. It was a novelty to him, and he brought real enthusiasm and expertise to the space, creating mezzanine levels, adding a bridge from our main bedroom, installing new windows throughout and opening up the fireplace. And then, of course, there’s the amazing space below …

“We started by opening up a deli and bottle shop and the community support was there right from the beginning. The wine bar was a natural extension of that idea – a literal extension of our home. You can fit around 20 to 30 people in the bar, so we have soundproofed the doors and made everything really very functional. You can literally just switch on the lights from the stairs and reach the bar in two seconds. It's an intimate space, and we like it that way. That’s what makes it feel so special. Opening up the space has connected us with the community so much. There’s a feeling of wanting everyone to be included here. We’ve met so many wonderful people.”

"It’s funny how you change ... We’re different people throughout our lives, with different desires and different milestones. When you’re young a house is just a place to sleep and eat. But as you grow it becomes a vessel for everything you love. For the things that matter and how you want to consciously move about your life … We’ve poured so much love into this house. It's the most personal place I’ve ever lived. The most emotionally tied I’ve been to a home. It makes me excited to imagine someone else feeling like that here.”