Chawton House

Chawton House Known to Jane Austen as 'the Great House'. Beautiful estate with tearoom, gardens & Austen heirlooms.

Chawton House Library is a charity with a unique collection of books focusing on women's writing in English from 1600 to 1830. This specialist collection, set in the home and working estate of Jane Austen's brother, provides the opportunity to study and savour the texts in their original setting and inspires passion in readers of all ages.

We have three more exciting outdoor performances coming up as part of our Summer of Shakespeare!Saturday 11th July - The...
11/06/2026

We have three more exciting outdoor performances coming up as part of our Summer of Shakespeare!

Saturday 11th July - The Lord Chamberlain's Men - Othello

Friday 7th August - British Touring Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet

Tuesday 25th August - 440 Theatre - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Find out more about each play and get your tickets here: https://chawtonhouse.org/whats-on/

Sunday 21st June marks the beginning of Regency Week, and we are celebrating with a series of exciting events!Sunday 21s...
10/06/2026

Sunday 21st June marks the beginning of Regency Week, and we are celebrating with a series of exciting events!

Sunday 21st June - Kicking off proceedings is our Knight Family Picnic at Dyers Barn, hosted by Caroline Jane Knight, Jane Austen’s fifth great-niece.
Monday 22nd June - Regency Week Special: A Day in the Life of Jane Austen.
Spend a summer’s day at Chawton House immersed in the rhythms, routines and inspirations of Jane Austen’s world, with a mixture of tours, Regency-inspired food, and creative activities.
Friday 26th June - Regency Week Jane Austen Garden Tour. Explore the beautiful grounds of Chawton House, walking in Jane Austen’s footsteps.
Friday 26th June - Regency Week Tour: Jane Austen at the Great House. Join a special guided tour highlighting Jane Austen’s connection to the ‘Great House'.

For more information on all these events, and to book your tickets, just head to https://chawtonhouse.org/whats-on/

08/06/2026

You can learn more about the Chawton House Gardens on a tour with our volunteer Beth Scott, focusing on our beautiful roses, on Thursday 11th June at 11:30am, free with Garden entry!

Head to our website to find out more through the link in our bio!

A travel journal with a wicked side. Margaret Christopher (1801-1864) was given this journal by her sister as a wedding ...
05/06/2026

A travel journal with a wicked side. Margaret Christopher (1801-1864) was given this journal by her sister as a wedding gift on the eve of her marriage to military surgeon John Bell in May 1829. The couple’s honeymoon took them on a walking tour through France, Switzerland and Germany, and sketches in her journal bring their trip to life.

They also indicate a satirical sense of humour. In the image, Margaret despairs of her fellow English tourists, calling herself ‘naughty Madgee’ for satirising her dinner companions, both in words and sketches. She notes the woman opposite ‘looking at me – ! and spoiling my appetite’; one gluttonous guest is ‘the man
with the mouth’; another woman has ‘a ghastly smile’.

A loose sketch of Margaret, likely from this trip, ‘sketching the lodge in the sun’ reminded us of Cassandra’s drawing of Jane Austen from behind.
You can read an earlier journal by Margaret transcribed here: https://www.saxonlodge.net/showmedia.php?mediaID=1346&medialinkID=1698

You can find this item and many more in our current exhibition HomeMade Histories: Letters, Art & Embroidery, open until Sunday 20th September.

You can still book tickets to see The Handlebards perform Shakespeare's As You Like It this Sunday 7th June.🎭What’s the ...
03/06/2026

You can still book tickets to see The Handlebards perform Shakespeare's As You Like It this Sunday 7th June.

🎭What’s the play about? Well – Rosalind and her cousin Celia flee to the Forest of Arden, where they bump into Rosalind’s love interest Orlando. However, Rosalind is disguised as a young man. Cue some local Shepherds getting involved and the stage is set for a wild ride of wooing, hilarious mistaken identity and the odd wrestling match.

To book tickets, just head to www.chawtonhouse.org/whats-on/outdoor-theatre-the-handlebards-as-you-like-it/.

This performance is part of our wider Summer of Shakespeare theatre programme, including Othello performed by The Lord Chamberlain's Men on Saturday 11th July. In August we will also have performances of Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Keep your eye out for more details soon!

Image: Tom Dixon

We’re delighted to announce the recipients of our 2026 Chawton House Fellowships, including this year’s British Associat...
02/06/2026

We’re delighted to announce the recipients of our 2026 Chawton House Fellowships, including this year’s British Association of Romantic Studies (BARS) Fellowship and the Deirdre Le Faye Fellowship for Austen scholarship.

Our Summer and Winter cohorts will explore a fascinating range of topics, from female creativity at the Georgian court and women’s philosophical writing, to Brontë juvenilia, marriage law reform, the reception history of Pride and Prejudice, and women’s collaborative literary culture.

These Fellowships have been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ardeola Charitable Trust and BARS.

Please join us in congratulating our Fellows — we look forward to welcoming them to Chawton House later this year.

Find out more about their research here: https://chawtonhouse.org/2026/05/2026-visiting-fellows-chosen/

Join our Monthly Patchwork and Stitched Textiles Club, running alongside our exhibition HomeMade Histories: Letters, Ar...
02/06/2026

Join our Monthly Patchwork and Stitched Textiles Club, running alongside our exhibition HomeMade Histories: Letters, Art & Embroidery.

The second session will be on Friday 5th June! This club is for anyone who has started their patchwork and stitching journey recently, or has been doing it for years. You are welcome to bring along ongoing projects or start something new to complete.
It is a great opportunity to meet new creatives working in the same discipline as you, and bounce ideas off of each other!

To book, just head to https://chawtonhouse.org/whats-on/monthly-patchwork-club-2/

Help us conserve one of the treasures of Chawton House: our rare 1746 map of London by John Rocque.Created just decades ...
27/05/2026

Help us conserve one of the treasures of Chawton House: our rare 1746 map of London by John Rocque.

Created just decades after the Great Fire of London, Rocque’s map was revolutionary in its detail and accuracy. Our copy is especially unusual — transformed from 24 separate prints into a spectacular Regency-era folding screen.

But time, light exposure and historic repairs have left it fragile and at risk.

Thanks to generous support, we’ve already raised most of the funds needed for specialist conservation. We now need just £2,000 to complete the project and preserve this extraordinary object for future generations.

This much-loved map is seen by thousands of visitors every year, and conservation will also help us develop new ways to display, interpret and digitally share it.

Donate today and help bring this remarkable piece of London’s literary history back to life:
https://app.donorfy.com/donate/MDEL7CE193/RoqueMapConservationFund

To make the most of the gorgeous weather, our Bank Holiday second-hand book fair is staying up all week at Chawton House...
26/05/2026

To make the most of the gorgeous weather, our Bank Holiday second-hand book fair is staying up all week at Chawton House, so you can still browse for your next great read until Friday.

Children can enjoy outdoor games and explore our two garden quiz trails:
🐝 The Nature Detectives Trail
🥕 Vegetables & Herbs Trail

The Walled Garden, in full bloom, is looking especially beautiful right now, while the Wilderness offers cool, shady paths that are perfect for exploring during the heatwave, and you can cool off with an iced coffee from the Old Kitchen Tearoom.

All activities are free with Garden entry, so come and enjoy some fresh air, flowers, books and family fun this half term.

Open daily, 10am–4.30pm.

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Chawton
Alton
GU341SJ

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+441420541010

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