Jane Austen 250 - 2025 | Reading Museum

April to October 2025

Venue: Reading Abbey Quarter

Celebrate Jane Austen's 250th Birthday in 2025 and visit her school!

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 Mrs Goddard’s School in Emma. You can visit by booking a guided tour or one of our talks below.

Visit Jane's Austen's historic school

Visit Jane Austen's school inside the medieval Abbey Gateway as part of an exclusive Abbey Quarter tour. These run most Saturdays until October 2025, booking is open now.

We are also offering Abbey Gateway Rooftop Tours, exploring the building's history and its links with Jane Austen.

All tours will also view a brand-new pop-up exhibition about Jane Austen and her links to Reading in the Abbey Gateway. The exhibition has been researched, edited and designed by English Literature and Typography students at the University of Reading.

On Saturday 13 September we are holding a free Abbey Gateway drop-in for Heritage Open days.

Inside the historic Abbey Gateway, book an exclusive Abbey Quarter tour to visit!

Book a tour of Jane Austen's schoolroom and the Abbey Quarter

Jane Austen 250 display devised and designed by students at the University of Reading, book an Abbey Quarter tour to view the displays

Group tours

Groups can book special private tours of the Abbey Quarter and Gateway, find out more on our group visits page.

Learn more about Jane Austen 250 celebrations throughout Reading and at The Museum of English Rural Life, including Austen's links to rural England.

We are collaborating with Jane Austen's House, Museums Partnership Reading, Reading Borough Libraries, Reading Civic Society, REDA, Roseate Hotel and University of Reading.