Lady’s 9 Beautiful Jane Austen Sites in England

Today I want to share my top picks for Jane Austen sites in England. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been reading and watching a lot of movies lately. It’s inspired me to get out and see some of my favorite Austen-inspired places in Britain. They’re exciting travel destinations.

Jane Austen Sites in England

Jane Austen is one of my favorite British novelists, and I’ve read books like Pride and Prejudice a million times. If you want to go on a literary tour of England, here are my top picks for Jane Austen sites to visit.

Jane Austen Sites in England from Her Life

I’ll start my list with sites from Jane Austen’s life. From her birthplace to her final resting place, you could do a full Jane Austen England tour visiting the locations she went when she was alive.

1. Steventon

First up is Steventon, where Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775. She was the seventh of eight children and her father was a clergyman here.

This village in Hampshire is idyllic, and it’s easy to imagine Austen running through the fields like Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility.

I visited Steventon on a country walk in Hampshire, and it was fun to see the sign for Jane Austen’s birthplace and the church where she and her family worshiped.

While her home was torn down in the 19th century, there are plenty of pretty houses in Steventon with topiary hedges to admire.

2. Bath

Bath is next on my list of Jane Austen sites in England. Not only did her heroines spend time here, but Austen herself lived here.

Jane Austen moved to Bath in 1801 and her family was based here until 1806. At the time, Bath was a popular spa town frequented by the fashionable set she depicted in her books.

Protagonists of Jane Austen novels like Persuasion and Northanger Abbey spent time in the Pump Room, which is still open to visitors today.

I’ve enjoyed tea to the sound of live music here on previous trips to Bath, and it’s a fun place to channel your inner Austen heroine.

Beyond the Pump Room, there’s a Jane Austen Centre in Bath where visitors can learn about her life and work. There’s also an annual Jane Austen Festival that offers a more immersive experience and a costume ball.

3. Jane Austen House in Chawton

After Bath, Jane Austen lived in Clifton and Southampton before moving to the village of Chawton in Hampshire in 1809.

She spent the next eight years of her life here before her death in 1817, and it’s one of the most important Jane Austen sites in England.

Austen lived in a cottage in Chawton with her mother and sister and wrote Mansfield Park and Emma here. The cottage is now a museum, and visitors can tour it and see personal effects like her clothing and jewelry.

I’ve been to Jane Austen’s House museum twice, once on a day trip to Winchester and Chawton and once during a weekend in Hampshire.

I enjoyed seeing everything from her writing table to her bedroom. The garden outside is lovely in summer, too.

4. Winchester

And speaking of Winchester, it’s another of the most important Jane Austen sites in England.

This is primarily because Jane Austen died here on July 18, 1817 and is buried in Winchester Cathedral. Her simple grave is in the north aisle of the nave.

Austen’s original memorial stone didn’t mention her novels (much of her fame came after her death), but her nephew Edward had a plaque installed in the north side aisle of Winchester Cathedral in 1872 to redress it.

In the early 20th century, a memorial window was installed above the plaque using funds raised from a public subscription. Today an illustrated exhibition covering the life, work, and death of Jane Austen sits next to her grave.

Winchester Cathedral is a great place for Austen fans to visit and pay homage to one of Britain’s most beloved writers.

5. Westminster Abbey

For those that can’t make it to Hampshire, Westminster Abbey is one of the best Jane Austen sites in London.

A small tablet dedicated to Austen’s memory was placed in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey on December 17, 1967. Donated by the Jane Austen Society, it’s a great tribute to the novelist.

Sober in polished stone, the tablet has Austen’s name, year of birth, and year of death inscribed on it. It’s worth a trip to Westminster to see it.

Jane Austen Sites in England from Her Novels

But what about the places Austen wrote about, you ask? There are a lot of great Jane Austen sites in England that come from her novels. There are even more that come from TV and film adaptations of her work.

6. Jane Austen’s London

Many a Jane Austen heroine spent time in London in the course of her novels. In Sense and Sensibility, for example, the Dashwood sisters stay with friends in London and make the rounds to fashionable parties and dances.

In Emma, Emma’s sister Isabella lives in Brunswick Square in Bloomsbury with her family. In Mansfield Park, Henry and Mary Crawford’s uncle, Admiral Crawford, lives on Hill Street in Mayfair.

In Sense and Sensibility, John and Fanny Dashwood stay in a house on Harley Street in Marylebone and Willoughby lodges on Bond Street.

In Pride and Prejudice, the Hursts have a house on Grosvenor Street in Mayfair and Jane Bennet calls on Caroline Bingley there.

While the houses may be fictional, there’s still enough Georgian architecture around that you can walk down these streets and imagine yourself in an open-air Jane Austen museum in London.

7. Derbyshire

Derbyshire is another of the most beloved Jane Austen sites in England. The Peak District is where Elizabeth Bennet and her relatives stumble upon Mr. Darcy’s house, Pemberley, in Pride and Prejudice.

Derbyshire is a great place for a Jane Austen tour of England, not least because many of the villages and stately homes in the area have been used as filming locations for Jane Austen films and TV shows.

Chatsworth House was used as Pemberley in the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and is one of the most famous places in the area.

Scenes from Pride and Prejudice were also filmed at Haddon Hall, another of the most beautiful stately homes in Derbyshire. I’ve enjoyed visits to both houses, and they do justice to Austen’s novels.

8. Surrey

Just south of London, Surrey is another of the best Jane Austen sites in England.

Why? Because Emma is set in Surrey. The protagonist swans around her little village here, a big fish in a little pond.

And while the village in the Jane Austen novel is fictional, many think it’s based on Leatherhead. In any case, there are so many beautiful villages in Surrey it’s hard not to want to visit this area and channel one’s inner Emma.

9. Gretna Green

If you followed my great British road trip, you’ll know I went to Gretna Green. While technically just over the border in Scotland, I’m going to include it on my list of Jane Austen sites in England since it played a role in Pride and Prejudice.

This is the place where Lydia and Wickham were thought to have gone to elope in the novel. And it wasn’t just them.

Gretna Green was famous for elopements in Austen’s time because historic marriage laws in Scotland were more lax than those in England.

It remains a popular wedding destination, too. The famous Blacksmiths Shop has been a wedding venue since 1754 and still hosts ceremonies today.

Gretna Green feels like a marriage-themed amusement park, complete with nuptial paraphernalia, wedding parties, and hedgerow mazes dotted throughout.

Even if you’re not planning to get hitched here, it’s one of the most entertaining Jane Austen sites in Britain.

Best Jane Austen Sites in England

I hope you’ve enjoyed this list of the best Jane Austen sites in England and that they’ve transported you around Britain as you’ve been reading this.

If you get a chance to visit some of these places in person, I’m sure you’ll feel as much like a Jane Austen heroine as Elizabeth Bennet or Elinor Dashwood.

Until then, you can enjoy reading about all these places and more in her novels and watching them on screen in the movies and TV series they’ve inspired.

Find this post helpful? Buy me a coffee!

New here? Join thousands of others and subscribe to the A Lady in London blog via email.

Some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links. At no cost to you, I earn a small commission when you click on them and make a purchase. It doesn’t affect the way you shop, and it’s a great way to support the A Lady in London blog.

Pin it!