Bath’s hospitality and leisure sectors are getting ready for next year’s Jane Austen 250 celebrations to write a new chapter in the city’s continued growth as a forward-looking tourism hotspot.
Festivities are planned throughout the year as the city marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the author and one-time Bath resident.
Jane Austen, who lived in Bath for five years from 1801, was known to have been inspired by the city and the characters it attracted as one of the country’s top leisure destinations for the fashionable society of the day.
All six of her novels mention Bath and two of them – Persuasion and Northanger Abbey – are set in the city.
Today the author – and particularly film and TV adaptations of her novels – act as a powerful magnet for domestic and international tourism.
While its annual 10-day Jane Austen festival attracts around 3,500 visitors to the city each September, next year’s attractions – which will include several Regency balls and a host of talks from key academics – are expected to pull in far bigger numbers.
With tourism worth around £2.46bn to the regional economy – and the sector employing around 46,000 people – according to latest figures from destination market organisation Visit West, an internationally focussed event such as Jane Austen 250 can have a huge impact.
Hotels and other tourist business are already preparing for the influx – among them Bath-based travel specialists ECT Travel.
Under its ‘Strictly Jane Austen’ umbrella, it has helped put together two, six-day exclusive hotel packages, costing from £2,200 per person, in the five-star Gainsborough Bath Spa Hotel.
Tour guide and actress Theresa Roche, pictured, who leads Strictly Jane Austen’s walking tours, said the package was the first-ever conference of this type.
“There will be top academics plus fun – with a Regency dance workshop and embroidery workshop.
“It will be Regency rip-roaring fun – and that includes the banquet itself,” she said.
Guests do not have to be Jane Austen aficionados to sign up.
“It’s open to everyone. It would certainly appeal to people who say ‘I don’t like the books but I love the films’,” she added.
Bath has been used as the backdrop for many film versions of Jane Austen’s novels – the most recent being Netflix’s adaption of Persuasion, starring Hollywood star Dakota Johnson, which was shot in the city in 2021 and released the following year.
Among those behind the Gainsborough Hotel package is writer, artist and academic Dr Gabrielle Malcolm, who has helped bring in a range of experts for the event.
Among those taking part will be Dr Leigh Wetherall Dickson, associate professor at Northumbria University, who will lift the lid on the secrets of the gaming and gambling games played by Jane Austen’s characters in her books.
Best-selling writer Gill Hornby will talk about her celebrated novel Godmersham Park, which was inspired by the real-life friendship between Jane Austen and her family governess Anne Sharp, while John Mullan, Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London, and Prof Jennie Batchelor, head of department at the University of York, will also lead sessions.
Participants will be able to really throw themselves into the Austen era with the option to dress in Regency outfits, with Sarah Jane Downing, author of Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen, on hand to provide some 19th century beauty tips.
The Gainsborough Hotel six-day packages take place in April and October so as not to clash with either the official annual Jane Austen festival in September or the summer ball.
Other Jane Austen 250 events planned for Bath include:
- A Jane Austen Experience package at The Royal Crescent Hotel. The one-night stay includes a Jane Austen-themed afternoon tea and guided tour of the streets where she worked, rested and played. Guests will also discover locations used in TV and film adaptations of her work and learn about what Bath was like around the time she lived in the city. From 1 May to 30 September, £330 per person (sharing a double room).
- Enjoy a Georgian getaway at The Francis Hotel. Guests can immerse themselves in the ambience of the Georgian era during this two-night experience. Included is the chance to explore the Georgian townhouse museum No.1 Royal Crescent and The Jane Austen Centre and walk in the author’s footsteps. Guests then return to the hotel on Queen Square for a Bridgerton cocktail and traditional afternoon tea.
- Stay in your own Georgian townhouse. Among Bath Luxury Rentals’ portfolio of charming Georgian townhouses is Mr Darcy’s Abode. This chic boutique self-catering property provides the perfect pad for a group stay during Jane Austen 250, with its seven bedrooms, four luxury bathrooms, a spacious kitchen and cosy snug.
- Follow in Jane Austen’s footsteps and lose yourself in your own good book. Boutique hotel Indigo Bath on South Parade is set among 11 Georgian townhouses. Stay in its Literary Hideaway Rooms, which come with walls of novels from many of Bath’s famous authors – including Jane Austen – and a writer’s desk.
- Book afternoon tea with Mr Darcy in the Regency Tea Room inside The Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street. The centre offers an interactive and immersive experience, looking at the novelist’s life and the impact that Bath had on her writing. Visitors can also learn how to dress like her and even eat like her with its traditional fare.
