The Ultimate Guide for Jane Austen Fans
For any Jane Austen enthusiast, a visit to Bath, England is an essential literary pilgrimage. 2025 is a special year celebrating ‘Jane Austen 250’, the 250 years since her birth in 1775. There are even more events and exhibitions taking place this year, as well as a larger-than-ever Jane Austen Festival in September.
Jane lived in Bath between 1801 and 1807, when the city was a bustling spa town, popular with fashionable society. She also set two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in Bath, making the city rich with locations tied to both her real life and the fictional worlds she created.
The Georgian architecture that dominated the city when Jane lived in Bath has remained largely unchanged. The result is that you can walk around Bath today and imagine yourself transported back to Jane’s time, walk in her footsteps, and see the same sights and visit the same places she did.
It was however a place her writing stalled, and in a letter to Cassandra she wrote, “It will be two years tomorrow since we left Bath for Clifton, with what happy feelings of escape.”
While she held deeper affection for other places like Chawton and Steventon, it’s the city of Bath that remains tied to her legacy. Thousands of fans flock here every year to visit the places she did and find out more about their most fondest author.
What A Jane Austen Fan To Do In Bath Today
I’ve explored Jane’s Bath many times and visit annually for the Jane Austen festival. Below are all the things that should be on your list as a Jane Austen fan in Bath, and how to make the most your time visiting this beautiful city.
1. Visit the Jane Austen Centre
Without a doubt, the top destination for Jane Austen fans in Bath is the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street, a few doors down from where Jane once lived. Upstairs, you will find the Regency Tea Rooms, where you can sit down to ‘Tea with Mr Darcy’. It provides the perfect starting point for exploring Jane Austen’s Bath.
2. Parade your bonnet at the Jane Austen Festival
The Jane Austen Festival happens every September and opens with the famous Regency Costumed Promenade. This is followed by ten-days of to balls, concerts, exhibitions, workshops, dancing lessons, talks, walks, and more. While celebrating, visit No.1 Royal Crescent to explore a typical Georgian styled house that Jane would have visited. In 2025, they have a special Jane Austen Exhibition featuring The Watson’s manuscript pages and two letters that Jane wrote from Bath telling Frank about their father’s death.
3. Take the Waters at the Pump Rooms
During the Regency era, visitors came to Bath seeking a cure for their ailments by ’taking the waters’. Jane visited the Pump Rooms often to see who had signed into the city visitors book kept in reception. Building began in 1789 and was completed a decade later. You can also take a sip along with afternoon tea.
To celebrate Jane’s 250th anniversary, two of her handwritten poems are on display as part of The Roman Baths Museum collection.
The open pool on the rooftop of the Thermae Baths next door gives you a beautiful view of the city, and is the only natural spa in England.
4. Parade Around Town
Gravel Walk was the Lover’s Lane of Jane Austen’s day, the top of which is across the road from the Royal Crescent. Jane used the setting for a touching love scene in Persuasion. As you stroll down Gravel Walk, look out for the discreet door into the Georgian Garden on your left. It has been restored to how it would have appeared in Jane’s time.
Further out is the Bath Skyline Walk which gives you wonderful views of the city.
5. Shop in Milsom Street
Milsom Street is where Jane shopped on a regular basis, and she mentions it by name in both of her Bath novels. In Northanger Abbey, General Tilney and his children stay on Milsom Street, a more fashionable address than Pulteney Street. In Persuasion, a sweet shop on Milsom Street is where Captain Wentworth and Anne Eliot first encounter each other after years of absence.
6. See the Holburne Museum and Sydney Gardens
When Jane lived in Bath, the Holburne Museum was the Sydney Hotel, a place she frequented for breakfast. For the 250th celebrations, there is a special exhibit titled Illustrating Jane Austen that focuses on the artwork featured in her novels. Jane Austen lived across the road at 4 Laura Place for a number of years (now a holiday rental). Behind the Museum is Sydney Gardens, where Jane mentions seeing a firework display in one of her letters.
7. Take Afternoon Tea and Bag A Bun!
A young Jane Austen writes in a mischievous letter about “disordering my stomach with Bath bunns.” No doubt she liked them too much! You can find Sally Lunn’s Historic Eating House where Jane bought her bun in the cobbled streets behind the Abbey.
8. Visit Bath Abbey
Jane would have known Bath Abbey well and often attended services. They have a series of Jane Austen themed events running each year, and outside you can find free and paid Jane Austen waking tours.
9. Visit Mr Austen at St Swithin’s Church
You will pass No.1 The Paragon where Jane stayed with her aunt and uncle on the way to St Swithin’s Church where Jane’s parents married in 1767. Mr Austen was buried in the church in 1801, and his gravestone has been moved outside so it can been seen when the church is closed.
10. Take a trip to the theatre
Jane attended the original Theatre Royal and saw her most admired actresses, Sarah Siddons perform. The Theatre Royal Bath dates from 1805, and hosts a number of Jane Austen themed performances each year.
Further Afield: Explore ‘Meryton’
The beautiful village of Lacock provided the setting for Meryton in the 1995 BBC television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. The historic Lacock Abbey has monastic roots and was home to nuns The medieval Lacock Abbey with its medieval roots was a former nunnery (and also stood in for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series of films).
Jane Austen Walking Tours
There are two self-guided tours of Bath I can recommend.
- The free Jane Austen audio tour from Visit Bath – is well done with sounds and background music from the Regency period
- Tour for the Jane Austen Trail Through Sydney Gardens where you can view and print a map.
- You can also view Bath by taking one of the Hop-On-And-Off Bus Tours, especially if you are short of time.
How to arrive
- Bath by car – There is an exit for Bath off of the M4 motorway if you are coming from London. You then follow the road straight into the city. For long term parking for the day look for Charlotte Street Car Park. There are three park and ride facilities which run regularly into the City.
- Bath by train – Bath Spa is the train station. Depending where you arrive from, you usually have to change at Bristol, though it’s 15 minutes from there. National Rail is the most popular website for trains in the UK.
- Bath by coach – National Express run a coach network from Heathrow Airport to various locations, which is also an option from London although it will take a lot longer to arrive.
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TAGS
Jane Austen, Jane Austen 250, Bath, Jane Austen Festival, Bath Abbey, Assembly Rooms, Regency Dancing, Milsom Street, The Circle, Regency, The Crescent, The Octagon, Paragon, Green Park Buildings, Laura Place, Queens Square, Gay Street, Trim Street, Jane Austen Centre, Sydney Gardens, Holburne Museum, Parade Gardens.
