“Break out the bodices and bonnets,” said The Times. Jane Austen fans will be “flocking” to the UK this year to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the world-renowned English author’s birth. Here are some of the best events coming up in 2025.
Bath
Austen lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806, and the city inspired two of her novels: “Persuasion” and “Northanger Abbey”. “It’s basically the Jane Austen capital,” said Time Out, so it’s little surprise that Bath is “hosting a vast array of revelries to mark her birthday”.
While the “full details are still under wraps”, the city’s annual Jane Austen Festival will hold a “big costumed promenade” on 13 September and a series of “Austen-inspired gala balls”, including a “Persuasion”-themed ball on 31 May and a “Sense and Sensibility” “soiree” on 14 September.
Southampton
Southampton might not “immediately come to mind” when thinking about “notable Austen locations”, but the author attended boarding school in the city for a short time and celebrated her 18th birthday at the Dolphin hotel, said the BBC.
From March until October, the SeaCity Museum is hosting an exhibition, “A Very Respectable Company”, of “rare paintings, letters, books and personal items” connected to Austen’s close circle of family and friends during her time living in Southampton. And in June, a street theatre event, The Stinking Fish of Southampton, will introduce visitors to Austen’s friends, neighbours and potential husbands at the Holyrood Church.
Derbyshire
In December (16 December 1775 was Austen’s date of birth), Chatsworth House – which became Mr Darcy’s country estate in Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” – will host a Regency ball inspired by the novel, with dancing and dinner, said Time Out. The memorable evening will be the final event in Chatsworth’s Austen250 programme: a series of talks, workshops and dressing-up events throughout the year.
Hampshire
The Jane Austen House museum in Chawton – where the author lived for the last eight years of her life and wrote most of her novels – is preparing for a “busy year ahead”, said the BBC.
Over the coming months, the venue is set to host a series of events from a “Pride and Prejudice”-themed walking tour to a “Persuasion”-themed festival. The museum is also running an exhibition, “Austenmania!”, celebrating the landmark 1995 TV and film adaptations of Austen’s works.
One of the most “sought-after” events in the calendar is a ticket to No.8 College Street in Winchester, where Austen died in 1817, said The Times. In June, the house – which has until recently been a private residence – will open to members of the public for the first time. Those “lucky enough to get a ticket” will have the chance to see the rooms where Austen wrote her final poem days before her death, and stand at the windows where Cassandra watched her sister’s funeral procession.
Elsewhere, Winchester Cathedral – where Austen is buried in the north nave aisle – is planning a “special service, theatre performances and tours”, and is set to unveil a clay sculpture of the author by Martin Jennings in the Inner Close.