Our Lady Jane

England Celebrates Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday

By Anthea Gerrie

Ladies in flower-trimmed bonnets, gentlemen in dress uniform—the fashionable strut their stuff on the boulevard, taking afternoon tea to wash down the healing waters, then dancing the night away in a gloriously ornate Georgian ballroom. It could only be Bath, that Regency jewel in England’s crown, as fashionable now as it was two hundred fifty years ago when Jane Austen was born.

What was considered hip in 1775—the gorgeous golden stone architecture of the perfectly-proportioned circles and crescents, the happening Pump Room, the richly chandeliered Guildhall, and Assembly Rooms—remain top tourist attractions in 2025. And there’s no better time to see them this year with the biggest Jane Austen festival celebrations to be held this century. “It will be years before there’s another significant anniversary, so all the stops are being pulled out this year,” explains Dr Amy Frost, curator of the No.1 Royal Crescent museum whose own summer exhibition about Austen’s “complicated” relationship with Bath is sure to set the cat among the pigeons for the writer’s legions of international fans.

The author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma (the origin story of the 1995 film Clueless), whose work also inspired Bridgerton, remains the city’s most famous resident. So it’s not surprising that the custom of parading its gilded streets in Regency costume lives on, like taking to the legendary baths and dressing up for the balls, which were the Regency equivalent of speed-dating, with beautiful daughters being pushed forward by helicopter parents to attract a moneyed match—or vice versa.

What is surprising is that Jane herself hated the cattle market matchmaking once she became a subject of it. She became as disillusioned over her five years in Bath as she had been thrilled and excited by earlier visits as an impressionable young girl. The author who asked, “Who can ever tire of Bath?” would go on to write about “happy feelings of escape” after returning to the rural Hampshire of her childhood. But visitors never fail to be enchanted by the city, and a lot is going on this year. From costumed balls in May, June, September, and December to plays, concerts, and immersive exhibitions, not to mention the key events of the annual fall festival. These will include an expected three thousand locals and Austen aficionados from all over the world parading in period costumes they have bought at the Festival Fayre or made themselves.

It’s de rigueur to start any visit at the best address in Bath, a compact city that seems to have been dropped like a golden goblet into an undulating swathe of greenery in the English southwest. While the old town at the base is awash in Roman and medieval treasures, it is the elegant rim of the Royal Crescent, built as a suburb for the affluent to enjoy the fresh air and stylish living high above the huddled masses, that impresses and enchants with its enduring eighteenth-century ambiance.

From the eponymous five-star hotel—England’s most perfect urban hostelry with fine dining, lush gardens, and a dedicated spa—it’s a two-minute stroll to No.1, which recreates Regency living at its finest. In an immersive experience, characters come to life in mirrors, one family member conducting squabbles with the portrait of another across the room—and where a manuscript of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, The Watsons, will return to Bath in July for the first time since it was written in 1804.

Royal Crescent is also the place to start a walking tour like those Jules Mittra offers through his tour company, In and Beyond Bath—though to give me the best understanding of Austen’s life in the city, he drove me across town to start our walk in her beloved Sydney Gardens. This gorgeous tiered park above the Holburne Museum doubled as Lady Danbury’s home in Bridgerton. Within, it’s a jewel of an art gallery that less savvy visitors never reach.

The homes on Sydney Place are jaw-droppingly grand and reflect how much the Reverend Austen must have stretched his vicar’s salary to rent one for himself, his wife Cassandra, and their two unmarried daughters. He brought them there in 1801, feeling Bath was a better bet for the girls’ marriage prospects than quiet Hampshire.

The Austens’ first Bath home sits just off Great Pulteney Street, a beautiful boulevard to stroll towards England’s most picturesque urban bridge. Poor Sir William Pulteney—his grand thoroughfare got connected to the city by the bridge. Still, his money ran out before he could add side streets to complete a new district to rival Royal Crescent and its neighbor, the Circus, whose dimensions were influenced by the perimeter of nearby Stonehenge.

On the far side of Robert Adam’s Palladian bridge sit the baths whose healing properties were discovered and celebrated by the Romans two thousand years ago, before their lavish spa was built over by the Saxons and forgotten for centuries. Now renovated and the city’s greatest attraction, only the adjacent King’s Bath was open in the 18th century when ladies and gentlemen would immerse themselves up to the neck for hours in all their finery. After drying off, it would be afternoon tea at the Pump Room upstairs, still the place for the cheese toasties—Austen’s favorite treat—and a complete afternoon tea experience with live classical music. The Pump Room will be the scene of a September ball held at the height of the festival this year—the others take place in the fancy Guildhall, where at street level, Bath Markets offer all manner of treasures, from local cheeses to the rich Tibetan shawls hung to decorate the entrance by Olwen, who crosses the globe for them in an echo of the East India Company entrepreneurs who made their fortunes flaunted in Bath by importing exotic treasures. A fortune based on brioche was launched nearby in 1682 by Sally Lunn, inventor of the Bath bun, another of Austen’s favorite snacks—they are still baked and served daily in their thousands at the oldest house in town.

While high-speed trains connect Bath with London, it’s worth driving to make a stop halfway in Chawton, where the author’s delightful but straightforward residence shows how she lived her best life, penning her masterpieces after fulfilling her responsibilities, keeping the family’s tea, sugar, and wine orders topped up. Nearby Tylney Hall Hotel is a huge old pile which is the closest visitors are likely to get to Mr. Darcy’s Pemberley—many a wet-shirted modern-day Darcy has been spotted around the pool, and more cheese toasties feature in the tea offered as part of a package with bed, breakfast, and tickets to Jane Austen’s House.

A car also permits an en-route stop at the beautiful and historic Wiltshire village of Lacock, a scene of Pride and Prejudice filming locations, and where the fifteenth-century coaching inn, the Sign of the Angel, is an enticing place with crooked floors, beamed ceilings, deep mattresses, and views of the garden. It’s a simple but delightful contrast to the opulence of the Royal Crescent Hotel—and probably the overnight experience Jane Austen herself would have preferred.

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Find more information at JaneAusten.co.uk, RoyalCrescent.co.uk, TylneyHall.co.uk, SignoftheAngel.co.uk, InAndBeyondBath.com, and VisitBath.co.uk.

Jane Austen 250th Anniversary Walking Tour

To celebrate this milestone anniversary of a beloved author, Active England—a leader in active, luxury, and bespoke travel across the UK—introduced the Jane Austen 250th Anniversary Walking Tour. This six-day, five-night journey takes travelers through the landscapes that shaped Austen’s novels, from the Georgian elegance of Bath to the rolling countryside of Hampshire. Combining history, culture, and scenic walks, the tour offers a truly immersive way to step into Austen’s world.

Highlights

• Visit Jane Austen’s home in Chawton, where she wrote all six of her novels.
• Explore her birthplace in Steventon and her final resting place at Winchester Cathedral.
• Walk the historic streets of Bath, a central location in Austen’s books, and experience this year’s celebratory Jane Austen Festival.
• Enjoy stays at The Wykeham Arms in Winchester and The Bird in Bath—two charming, character-filled accommodations.
• The tour includes all breakfasts, two dinners, baggage transportation, select gratuities, and more.

This tour runs September 15–20, 2025. Visit ActiveEnglandTours.com to learn more or reserve a spot.

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