Jane Austen is one of Britain’s most distinguished authors, known for her six completed novels characterising life among the landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Her skilled prose and wit continue to generate a global fan-base and have inspired a plethora of successful films and TV series.
Less well-known is the writer’s connections with Southampton, in 2025 a line-up of celebratory events is about to set the record straight! Austen is a former resident of Southampton, she attended boarding school here briefly with her sister and celebrated her 18th birthday dancing at a ball in the upstairs rooms of The Dolphin. Many of the historic streets and walkways of the old town would have been only too familiar to her. Read more about Jane Austen's connections to Southampton in our blog post here.
Jane Austen 250 celebrations kick-start with an exhibition of the writer’s travelling desk on November 14 running to 23 February 2025 at God’s House Tower, but there will be scores of workshops, dance and music performances and a host of other events right across the city.
A free, downloadable Jane Austen Heritage Walking Trail Map has been specially created pin-pointing eight key locations, each marked by a plaque explaining Austen’s Southampton story.
Check out the events below, watch this space for the latest updates and get involved in a year-long celebration of perhaps the greatest romantic author to have ever lived in Southampton.
Marking the start of Jane Austen 250 in Southampton, Austen’s travelling writing desk will be exhibited at God’s House Tower, just a stone’s throw from where she lived in the city over 200 years ago. On loan from the British Library, the desk is returning to the city the first time since she lived here between 1806 and 1809. It is the centrepiece of an exhibition that will include opportunities for local communities to get involved through workshops, creative commissions and activities.
The portable, mahogany desk was designed to fold into a case for ease of travelling, and was gifted to Jane Austen around the time of her 19th birthday by her father, George Austen. Exactly 230 years later, the desk will be at the heart of a year-long celebration of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday in Southampton, and across the world.
‘a space’ arts and Southampton Forward have secured the loan of Jane Austen’s travelling writing desk from the British Library, with support from Art Fund.
The Jane Austen Heritage Walking Trail was launched in 2017 to commemorate Austen’s time in Southampton.
There are eight plaques each at a location associated with Jane Austen. The plaque at the beginning of the trail at Bargate marks the place where seven-year-old Jane, her sister and cousin attended a nearby school run by a Mrs Ann Cawley, only to return home again after a few weeks when the school was closed down after an outbreak of typhus. The author spent many holidays in Southampton and subsequently moved to live in the city from 1806 to 1809.
Curated around descendants and families linked to Jane Austen’s time in Southampton, a never-before-seen exhibition of rare paintings, letters, books and personal items will be on display to the public for the first time. The exhibition will focus on Austen’s female network of friends, many of whom could have been the inspiration for some of her iconic female fictional characters.
This circle of friends included her next-door neighbour Ann Newell, an absentee landlord of plantations and slaves, Charlotte Fitzhugh who married into a wealthy East India Company and was a superfan of Austen’s favourite actress Sarah Siddons, and Anne Middleton, a mixed-race plantation heiress from Jamaica whose private life was splashed across national newspapers. Items on display will include the precious Austen Family Household Book of family recipes and silhouettes first started by Austen’s grandmother.
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