Best places to celebrate Jane Austen 250
What's on around England, for the writer's anniversary
It’s a big year for Jane Austen fans, as 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth, with events planned all over England. I have been writing a few pieces on the topic, including an Austen trail for discoverbritain.com and a guide for Escape.com.au about the best sites to visit. Here’s how to get started:
London
The author spent a lot of time in London, staying with brother, Henry, at his home at 10 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, which is now a bar. You can stay in the boutique hotel The Henrietta, a few doors along and enjoy the same view Jane would have gazed upon, henriettahotel.com.
Or, you can check in to the super-boutique Henry’s Townhouse, in Marylebone, which was another former townhouse of her bother Henry’s. I have visited here and it has been beautifully restored with a nod to the author, henrystownhouse.co.uk.
Don’t leave London without visiting her tablet, in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Steventon
Just south-west of London, you come to the village of Steventon, Hampshire, where Jane was born, on December 16, 1775. Her father was rector of the church until he retired in 1801 and the 13th century St Nicholas Church has changed little since the author sat in the pews listening to his services. The rectory, where the family lived, was demolished, but a lime tree marks where it stood. You can take a Jane Austen Trail, following in her footsteps around the village, steventonhants.org.uk.
One walk Jane often enjoyed, was to the nearby 18th century country manor, Oakley Hall, then owned by family friends, the Bramstons, and scenes from which appeared in Mansfield Park. It’s now a 50-room hotel, oakleyhall-park.com.
Chawton
Not far from Steventon, is the village of Chawton, where you’ll find the museum Jane Austen’s House. A must-visit for any Austen fan, this pretty cottage was the last home of the writer, where she lived with her mother and sister from 1809 until 1817 and where she penned all of her novels.
Now an atmospheric museum, I’ve visited here and you can wander around the rooms as they were in her day and see her writing desk, letters, clothes and bedroom. To mark the anniversary, the museum is running an exhibition, “Jane Austen and the Art of Writing”, janeaustens.house
Winchester
In May 1817, an ill Jane travelled to Winchester, to be near her doctor, moving into lodgings at 8 College Street, where she died, on 18 July 1817, aged 41, of what is now thought to have been either Addison’s disease or Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Part of Winchester College, the apartment is open to the public for the first time. Tickets are available at winchestercollege.org - I’m definitely heading here.
Jane was buried in the north nave of Winchester Cathedral and it’s here you can see her tombstone, which famously mentions, “the extraordinary endowments of her mind”, but not her novels. To mark the anniversary, Winchester Cathedral has commissioned a statue of the author and is holding tours and services, visitwinchester.co.uk.
Southampton
The author lived in Southampton between 1806 and 1809 and her travelling writing desk is on loan from The British Museum as part of exhibition, “In Training for a Heroine”, at God’s House Tower until February. The SeaCity Museum is also running a special exhibition, “A Very Respectable Company – Jane Austen and her Southampton Circle”, from March to October.
You can take a Jane Austen Walking Trail around the city, following plaques around key places in what was then a spa-town, including the former The Dolphin Hotel, where she attended balls, which recently hit the headlines because it’s being converted into student accommodation. Visitsouthampton.co.uk/janeausten250
Bath
Bath appeared in all six of Jane Austen’s novels. She was a frequent visitor and later resident, and there are special events all year in key sites, including The Jane Austen Centre, Bath Assembly Rooms and Pump House. There will be three balls for Austen fans this year – two Summer Balls and a Yuletide Birthday Ball, as well as the annual Jane Austen Festival and Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in September, janeausten.co.uk.
The Gainsborough Bath Spa hotel also has a programme of Austen events, including tours, talks and a celebratory dinner, thegainsboroughbathspa.co.uk, or you can stay in one of Jane’s former homes, the apartment No. 1 The Paragon, onetheparagon.co.uk.