Jane Austen 250

2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and we’ll be celebrating throughout the year. Join us for brand new exhibitions, special events, collaborations and more.  We’re excited to say that our 2025 admission tickets are now on sale! Book now to enjoy best availability and early-bird pricing! We’re expecting 2025 to be a busy year so all tickets must be pre-booked to ensure our visitors have the best possible experience.  Read on for opening times and to find out what’s on in 2025!

Pride and Prejudice Festival Tickets On Sale!

Throughout 2025, we’ll be hosting a series of festivals to celebrate Jane Austen’s special anniversary year.

In January, we’ll be turning our annual Pride and Prejudice Day celebrations into a full-blown Pride and Prejudice Festival, running from the 23rd to the 28th of the month and tickets are on sale now! The festival will feature a programme of special events, including themed tours, pop up talks and late views. Visitors can enjoy a free Pride and Prejudice trail through the House, or drop into a free writing session or sewing group.

The festival also features unique performances including Pride and Prejudice in Words and Music, an exquisite performance bringing P&P to life through Carl Davis’s instantly-recognisable musical score and Reading Aloud: An Evening of Pride and Prejudice, a re-enactment of the first ever reading of Pride and Prejudice over 200 years ago,  in the very room in which Jane Austen read aloud from her novel. The festival includes virtual talks and tours so Jane Austen fans around the world can join in the festivities online. Austenmania, a new exhibition celebrating Austen adaptations including the iconic BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series, will open in time for the festival on 22 January and run throughout 2025.

Jane Austen and the Art of Writing

We’re thrilled to announce the opening of our brand-new permanent exhibition, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing, which celebrates and centres Jane Austen as a ground-breaking and ambitious writer in the very house where she created her six beloved novels. This inspirational exhibition, now open, directly links Jane Austen’s creative process with the domestic space from which it came. It showcases treasures from our extraordinary collection, including objects that inspired Jane Austen and a full set of first editions of her novels – rarely seen together. The exhibition uses facsimiles of surviving manuscripts, touch objects, film and audio to provide a hands-on experience for visitors and to explain Jane Austen’s writing process. This permanent exhibition is free with House entry. We can’t wait to share it with you!

What’s On in 2025

Following on from our Pride and Prejudice Festival in January, our celebratory festival series will run throughout 2025:

Sense & Sensibility Festival, 1-11 May

This spring festival will focus on Jane Austen’s first-published novel, Sense & Sensibility with an events programme that explores drawing and music, and the natural world. Events include themed tours, talks, guided walks and candlelit evening views. Online events will enable fans of Jane Austen’s works around the world to join in the festivities.

Emma Festival, 12-20 July

This summer festival will be themed around Emma, Jane Austen’s “perfect” summer novel, with a particular focus on fashion and dress. A highlight of the programme is the museum’s popular annual Dress Up Day, taking place on 19 July. The festival programme also includes themed tours, talks, guided walks and evening views. Online events will enable fans of Jane Austen’s works around the world to join in the festivities.

 Persuasion & Poetry Festival, 12-21 September

This autumnal festival will be themed around Jane Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion, with a particular focus on poetry, walking and nature. Visitors can enjoy poetry readings, writing workshops and local guided walks, as well as themed House tours and talks. Online events will enable fans of Jane Austen’s works around the world to join in the festivities.

Jane Austen’s Birthday Festival, 13-21 December

The Birthday Festival will see the House dressed for the festive season with traditional Georgian decorations, scents and recipes, and offering visitors the chance to explore the House by candlelight and to enjoy musical performances and readings, as well as festive craft sessions and some calming respite from the clamour of the festive season!

Special festivities on 16 December will celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday at both the House and online at Jane Austen’s Virtual Birthday Party.  This popular annual event is regularly attended by hundreds of guests from around the world who gather at the virtual event to toast the author.

Watch this space for full festival line-ups and to find out when tickets are on sale.

Throughout 2025, we’ll continue to run our regular events programme of Virtual Book Clubs, Guided Village Walks, Waking Up The House Tours and Guided Virtual Tours.  Tickets for our January – March editions of these events are on sale now!

We’re expecting 2025 to be a very busy year so please pre-book your admission tickets to enjoy best availability and avoid disappointment.  

Pre-order our Book!

As part of our celebrations for Jane Austen’s 250th birthday next year, we’re publishing a book – and you can pre-order your copy now!

In honour of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday in 2025 we are thrilled to reveal the cover of our brand-new book, A Jane Austen Year!

Hitting the shelves from March 2025 and available to pre-order now, A Jane Austen Year charts the life, works and legacy of one of the world’s most beloved authors through the seasons of a year at Jane Austen’s House, the enchanting Hampshire cottage where she lived and wrote.

Dip into Jane’s letters to her sister, discover the story of the publication of Pride and Prejudice and the ‘topaze crosses’ that inspired Mansfield Park, and enjoy recipes that Jane herself would have known.

This delightful book offers a unique and intimate insight into Jane Austen’s world – her life, novels and letters, people and objects she knew, and of course her idyllic, inspiring home.

Copies purchased directly from Jane Austen’s House will be delivered in January 2025, 2 whole months before general release – pre-order your copy now!

A new look for a special year!

We have once again worked with world-renowned design agency Pentagram to create a new visual identity for the celebratory year. The design is inspired by Jane Austen’s love of nature and the outdoors and references a number of key plants and objects, including the beautiful Blush Noisette rose which frames the doorway of the House and was introduced to Europe in 1817, the year of Jane Austen’s death. The design also includes an oak leaf and acorn, referencing a Wedgwood dinner service owned by the Austen women at Chawton, which Jane mentioned in a letter to her sister Cassandra in 1811: ‘On Monday I had the pleasure of receiving, unpacking & approving our Wedgwood ware. It all came very safely & upon the whole is a good match, tho’ I think they might have allowed us rather larger leaves, especially in such a Year of fine foliage as this.’

Jane Austen, 6 June 1811

The oak leaf in the design is also a nod to an oak tree in the museum garden which is a descendent of one planted by Jane Austen over 200 years ago. Also referenced in the design is the ‘Chawton Leaf’ wallpaper that hangs in the Dining Room, where Jane Austen’s writing table sits. The wallpaper was recreated from a fragment of historic wallpaper discovered in the Dining Room in 2018, that has been dated to the time when Jane Austen was living at the House.

2025 Opening Times

During 2025, we will be open the following days. Please note: all tickets must be pre-booked to ensure our visitors have the best possible experience during this celebratory year. 

Saturday 4th January to Sunday 20th April:
Open Wednesday to Sunday. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Exception: We will be open on 27th and 28th January for our Pride & Prejudice festival and we will be open 7 days a week for the February half term holidays between Monday 17th and Sunday 23rd February.

Monday 21st April to Sunday 28th September: Open 7 days a week.
During this very busy period, we will be closed on the second Monday of each month to carry out essential conservation work and take care of our precious buildings and collections. We will therefore be closed on: Monday 12th May, Monday 9th June, Monday 14th July, Monday 11th August, Monday 8th September.

Wednesday 1st October to Sunday 14th December:
Open Wednesday to Sunday. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Exceptions: We will be open 7 days for the October half term holidays between Monday 27th October and Sunday 2nd November. We will be closed between Monday 3rd and Friday 7th November.

Monday 15th to Sunday 21st December: Open 7 days – to celebrate Jane’s birthday!

Monday 22nd to Friday 26th December: House Closed 

Saturday 27th to Tuesday 30th December: House Open

Wednesday 31st December: House Closed

More to be revealed!

Watch this space for more news on special exhibitions, events and partnerships during this exciting celebratory year! Follow us on social media, keep an eye on our website and sign up to our newsletter. We can’t wait to welcome you to Jane Austen’s House. 

A Message from our Director

“ 250 years of Jane Austen is really something to celebrate and there will be no better place to celebrate this milestone than here at Jane Austen’s House.

As well as brand new exhibitions and events, there will be lots of ways to get involved and be a part of this extraordinary year commemorating this exceptional woman and her ongoing living legacy and influence. 

Sign up to our newsletter, follow us on social media and make sure you don’t miss anything that’s going on in this special place in this special year!” 

Lizzie Dunford, Jane Austen’s House Director 

We are delighted to work with our partners across Hampshire to celebrate 250 years of Jane Austen. For more events and celebrations across Hampshire, visit https://www.visit-hampshire.co.uk/whats-on/jane-austens-250