JANE AUSTEN CENTRE – BATH
Pride & Prejudice and Tea with Mr. Darcy
Jane Austen has come home to Bath after 200 years. The Jane Austen Centre of Bath has recently installed a new wax figure likeness of the world’s most famous woman romance author. A three year project by a forensic artist, Melissa Dring, who also did an earlier interpretation of Austen, working from an 1810 watercolor sketch drawn by her sister and contemporary descriptions by a nephew, is the newest image representation of the author of perennial favorites like “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma” to take a place in the exhibition space in Bath, alongside the tea cups.
Jane Austin was neither born nor buried in Bath, and only lived in the city in southwest of England for five years of her relatively short life, but it is the city she is most associated with and any visit to Bath will likely be drawn to or encounter a bit of Austen. Austen was born and lived most of her early life in the Hampshire country hamlet of Steventon near Basingstoke. She visited Bath twice as a girl and moved there with her parents after her father decided to retire from his rectory position. She lived in the city from 1801 to 1806, but had already written some of her best known works by then.
The Jane Austen Centre is not a museum, but more a celebration of the author’s life and times, and the local homages that have grown around her popularity and fan enthusiasm. A visit to the exhibition begins with live introduction to Jane Austen’s life in Bath by a guide in Regency costume in a classroom like upper floor room where with a window looking out on the street where Austen would have walked. A presentation starts every 20 minutes. After the orientation, the doors open to explore the rooms of reproduction examples of dress and style of the times of the early 1800s Regency period and exhibits of the social life and entertainments of the time and some of Austen’s life in Bath.
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Principal Features:
Jane Austen Exhibits
Tea Room
Book & Gift Shop
Visiting Jane Austen Center in Bath
Hours: Open All Year
April to October from 9:45 am to 5:30 pm
Extended Summr Hours July and August 9am to 6 pm
Winter Hours - November to March 11am to 4:30pm Sunday to Friday and 9:45 to 5:30 on Saturdays.
Last admission an hour before closing
Prices: Adults £8
Students £8
Seniors £6
Getting There: The Jane Austen exhibition centre is located at 40 Gay Street, just off Queen Square in central Bath a five minute walk from the Roman Baths.
Nearest Train Station: Bath Station
Also visit: London Eye Maritime Museum Sherlock Holmes Pub
Nearby Hotels: Bath