From May 2025
Venue: Reading Abbey Quarter
Celebrate Jane Austen's 250th Birthday in 2025!
2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and we’ll be celebrating throughout the year. Reading has many connections to Jane Austen and her family. Reading Museum cares for the historic Abbey Gateway where Jane and her sister Cassandra attended the Reading Ladies Boarding School in 1785-1786. The school is often cited as the inspiration for Austen’s Mr Goddard’s School in Emma.
Join us for talks, tours, open days, displays, special events and more starting in May 2025, full details will appear on this page in spring 2025.
Groups can book special private tours of the Abbey Quarter and Gateway, find out more on our group visits page.
Our public Abbey Quarter tours will run most Saturdays from April to October 2025 and include an exclusive visit to Austen's school inside the medieval Abbey Gateway. You can book a tour online on this website from spring 2025.
We are collaborating with Jane Austen's House, Reading Borough Libraries, Reading Civic Society, REDA, Roseate Hotel and University of Reading.
Find out more about all Jane Austen 250 events in Reading on the Visit Reading website.
Reading Abbey Gateway where Jane Austen went to school
The schoolroom inside the historic Abbey Gateway
