Visit Jane Austen's schoolroom

In 2025, as part of the 250^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, her former school room in Reading’s Abbey Quarter, often cited as the inspiration for Austen’s Mr Goddard’s School in Emma, will open for a series of special events and tours.

When she was just nine years old, Jane Austen spent 18 months at school in Reading. Based in the former Gateway of the medieval Reading Abbey, Reading Ladies Boarding School became home to Jane, her elder sister Cassandra and cousin Jane between the summer of 1785 and December 1786.

Visit Jane Austen’s School Room in Reading in 2025

Guided visits to her school room every Saturday from April to October 2025 as part of Reading Museum’s Abbey Quarter tours.  BOOK NOW>>>  Group tours are also available on other days by arrangement.

Jane Austen Wednesdays - May & June 2025

A series of six talks and workshops on Wednesday afternoons (from 2.30pm) in May and June. Booking now open! Only £10 per Wednesday if you book for all six events.

• Wednesday 7 May - Talk: Jane Austen and the local connection
• Wednesday 14 May - Talk: A day in the life of a regency Lady
• Wednesday 21 May - Talk: Jane Austen 250 and the New Localism 
• Wednesday 4 June - Workshop: Inspired by Nature - Natural Ink Making with Oak Galls
• Wednesday 11 June - Talk: Scrambling into a little education- the story of Jane Austen’s schooldays in Reading.
• Wednesday 18 June - Talk: The Georgian Dining Experience