Jane Austen Experience Opened in London
Jane Austen fans! Grab your bonnet and head to Oxford Street to visit London’s newest attraction, the Jane Austen Experience.
@urbanadventurerldn [MORE INFO IN BIO] 𝒥𝒶𝓃𝑒 𝒜𝓊𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓃 𝐸𝓍𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝐿𝑜𝓃𝒹𝑜𝓃 📖 🪶 Jane Austen fans! Grab your bonnet and head to Oxford Street to visit London’s newest attraction, the Jane Austen Experience @The Jane Austen Experience 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝒸𝓉? 🪶 • Dress up like your favourite Jane Austen character • Write a letter using quill and ink • Live actors • Learn more about Jane Austen’s family members and how they influenced the author’s novels • Try biscuits people enjoyed in the Regency period • Smell perfumes • Play games • Take a selfie with a Jane Austen wax figure • Shop beautiful limited-edition Jane Austen merch The live actors are very knowledgable! We had a lovely conversation about how people would have dressed for the different seasons in the Regency Period and how the original wallpaper was discovered in the drawing room in Jane Austen’s house. 📍 Where Jane Austen Experience London | 11 John Prince’s St, London W1G 0JR 🕰️ When Experience Opening Hours Mon – Sun: 9:45am – 5pm 🎟️ Tickets Book your ticket on the Jane Austen Experience’s official website. Adult: £19.50 Children (ages 6-16): £11.60 #janeaustenexperience #janeaustenlondon #janeausten #prideandprejudice #senseandsensibility
Jane Austen Experience
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Brandish your invitation card and step into the world of Jane Austen.
Just a few minutes walk from Oxford Street, this new attraction is created by the Jane Austen Centre in Bath.
First the gift shop opened in November 2025, followed by the permanent experience this February.
What to Expect From the Jane Austen Experience
Photo: Urban Adventurer
The Jane Austen Experience is taken place in an elegant three-storey building, off Oxford Street on 11 John Prince’s Street and it will bring you all the charm, wit, elegance and romance of the Regency England.
Your journey starts in the very moment you step into the gift shop on the ground floor.
Actors and actresses greet you as you step in, all in costume portraying a Jane Austen character from one of her books, so you’ll instantly feel like you’ve been stepped into her world.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
You’ll be then invited to the waiting room on the third floor, where – while waiting – there are numerous activities to choose from.
You can create fun sentences in the style of the 18th-century England, using the worlds on a magnet board, or pick an activity sheet and test your knowledge about Jane Austen and her novels, do word search or colour a Jane Austen duck.
Shooting piano and violin music helps you immerse more into the Jane Austen universe.
Dress Like Your Favourite Jane Austen Character, Smell Perfumes, and Write a Letter with Quill
Photo: Urban Adventurer
When your session starts, you will be escorted to another room resembling to the inside of an 18th– century church.
You’ll sit on the wooden bench and one of the actors will talk about Jane Austen’s family and shares festinating stories about her family members. Some of the stories show great similarities to Jane’s novels.
You’ll learn about Jane’s relationship with her siblings (she was very close to her brother Henry and sister Cassandra).
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Next, you’ll be visiting the dressing room where you’ll have the opportunity to try Regency-style costumes. You can pick your dress or suit, your bonnet or top hat and fan or tie and you’re ready for a photo in front of Pemberley and gaze the freshly painted charming portrait of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
There is information scattered around the room about how men and women dressed in the Regency period, what they wore during the different seasons and how to tie a Cravat (men’s neckband).
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Ladies can also learn the secret language of the fan.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
In the next room you can learn how to write with a real quill and ink and marvel at a replica of Jane Austen’s traveling writing desk.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
One of our hosts told me that the desk had a secret chamber where Jane often hid the pages of her novels she was writing at the time because the society very much frowned upon a woman using her imagination and writing fictional stories.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
I thought, writing with a quill would be very difficult, but to my surprise, I found it easy. Be prepared, however, because it can be really messy as the ink can easily drop everywhere if you don’t pay close attention. All my respect to Jane Austen who wrote all her novels with quill and ink!
How Did Jane Austen Really Look Like?
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Your next room is the wax room, where you can meet Jane herself.
Although, the appearance of Jane Austen is still speculated and debated (that’s the reason, there’s no wax figure of her at Madam Tussauds), this wax figure is probably the closest to how she would have looked like.
Our only clue is an unfinished portrait of Jane, drawn by her sister, Cassandra.
The wax figure standing here has been created with the help of Forensic artist, Melissa Drin, who trained in Washington with the FBI. Her sources were the unfinished portrait by Cassandra, a stipple engraving from 1870 and written descriptions of Jane Austen’s contemporaries. Melissa Drin also looked at the other members of Jane’s family, looking for facial features that were recurrent in each of them, especially their nose.
The statue is featuring Jane Austen in her mid-twenties or early thirties when she was living in Bath. The dress was made by costume designer, Andrea Galer who’s made costumes for film adaptations, including Mansfield Park and Persuasion. The hair and hair colour has been created by artist Nell Clark who previously worked for Madam Tussauds.
While in the room, stop for a second to admire the wallpaper because it’s the exact pattern, Jane had in her room in Chawton, Hampshire.
The wallpaper was preserved and later discovered by accident when Jane’s brother, Edward, bricked up a window in the family drawing room to provide more privacy from the street. Centuries later, the window was uncovered revealing the original wallpaper with that botanical motif featuring a burgundy vine and a warm yellow background.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Now, time to try some biscuits and smell some perfume from the Regency period.
The biscuit didn’t have much taste and that’s because sugar was still a very expensive ingredient in the 18th century. It was something that only the wealthiest could afford, just like tea. Tea was so expensive, by the way, that the lady of the house often kept the key to the tea box on her necklace to prevent the servants from stealing.
Because it was so expensive, tea leaves were used many times until the tea tasted almost nothing but water. Then, the leaves were gifted to the servants.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
As personal hygiene was still pretty much an issue at the time, people used strong perfumes to mask the smell of their bodies. You can smell three different perfumes people used in the Regency period.
There also wooden games on the table you can try and play.
The map on the wall showcases all the places can be linked to Jane Austen, including Drury Lane theatre and London’s oldest tea shop, the Twinings’ that Jane often visited when in London.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Although Jane Austen never lived in London, she often visited her beloved brother, Henry, who was living under 10 Henrietta Street at the time. During her stay in London, Jane loved exploring the city’s most fashionable districts, theatres, bookshops, and shops.
10 Henrietta Street
Photo: Urban Adventurer
The capital often appears in Jane Austen’s novels, although she often depicts it as a place of vanity, frivolity and vice. In real life though, Jane loved the city and enjoyed visiting very much.
Your experience ends on the ground floor at the gift shop where you can find everything Jane Austen related from beautiful special editions of her books to jewellery inspired by her characters, special Jane Austen 250th anniversary merch and more.
Practical Info
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Address
Jane Austen Experience London | 11 John Prince’s St, London W1G 0JR
Experience Opening Hours
Mon – Sun: 9:45am – 5pm
Tickets
Book your ticket on the Jane Austen Experience’s official website.
Adult: £19.50
Children (ages 6-16): £11.60
Ready for your next adventure? Created by women for women. Magic, Mystics and Martyrs is not your ordinary historical walking tour in London. HERstorical Tours is specialised in women history-themed walking tours to talk about the lesser known stories of women in history, including witches, courtesans, rebellious martyrs, satanic noble women and more. Men are more than welcome– and highly encouraged – to join!
