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!

Jane Austen and the Art of Writing

We’ll be launching our anniversary programming in October 2024 with the opening of a brand-new permanent exhibition, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing, which will celebrate and centre Jane Austen as a ground-breaking and ambitious writer in the very house where she created her six beloved novels.

This inspirational exhibition will directly link Jane Austen’s creative process with the domestic space from which it came. Drawing on the House’s extraordinary collection, it will celebrate Jane Austen’s creative genius and show how seriously she took her craft, animating and sharing the physical and mental processes she used to develop her novels – from her earliest teenage writings to her adult novels, inspirations, pioneering techniques, and publication. It will showcase the museum’s unique collection of manuscript letters and first editions and use facsimiles of surviving manuscripts to provide a hands-on experience for visitors and to explain Jane Austen’s writing process. This permanent exhibition opens in October 2024 and will be free with House entry.

What’s On in 2025

Throughout 2025 we’ll be hosting a series of mini festivals to celebrate this special anniversary. Each themed festival will feature a programme of special events, walks, talks and tours, late-views, screenings and performances. Online events will enable fans of Jane Austen’s works around the world to join in the festivities.

The first festival of the year will run 23-28 January, focusing on Jane Austen’s best-loved novel Pride & Prejudice. This event will build on the success of our annual Pride & Prejudice Day on 28 January, the anniversary of the novel’s publication. The spring festival will run from 1-11 May, focusing on Jane Austen’s first-published novel, Sense & Sensibility. A summer festival will run from 12-20 July, focusing on Jane Austen’s “perfect” summer novel, Emma. In the autumn, visitors will enjoy a festival from 12-21 September focusing on Jane Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion, with its autumnal themes. From 13-21 December the House will run a Christmas festival, featuring traditional Georgian decorations, scents and recipes, and offering visitors the chance to explore the House by candlelight and to enjoy musical performances and readings. Special festivities on 16 December will celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, including our popular annual Virtual Birthday Party!

Event tickets for January-March will go on sale in September 2024. Further news and details of additional exhibitions and events will be revealed in due course so watch this space!

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