Homes in bath
No. 1 Paragon Buildings
This was where the Austens stayed when they first arrived in Bath in May 1801, and where they were based while looking for a permanent home.
The property belonged to Mr James Leigh-Perrot, who was Mrs Austen's elder brother. Mr & Mrs Leigh-Perrot were a wealthy couple, who regularly hosted parties for their friends inside the house.
Part of the building is now a holiday apartment. If you would like to stay here, you can find out more on the Bath Self Catering website here.
4 Sydney Place
This was the house that the Austens first called home in Bath, taking the lease from the summer of 1801 until June 1804.
It was an appealing property, being less than ten years old and with many modern conveniences. At set times during the week, water was piped inside from nearby springs and the street boasted a baronet and an army general amongst its residents.
Views from the windows looked out over the fashionable Sydney Gardens with its popular labyrinth, and where music, illuminations and fireworks were frequent entertainments. At the back of the house was a walled garden and the whole development was on the fringes of meadowland.
Inside the house were four floors. The kitchen was in the basement and the dining room on the ground floor.
The reception rooms were on the first floor to show off the fine views, and then the bedrooms at the top. The servants slept in attic rooms within the roof.
Constance Hill visited the house in 1901, a century after the Austens lived there. She found the appearance of the rooms much as they might have been when the family were in residence. Her description of what she found, enhanced by her sister's drawings of the inside, provide a warm and personal account of this home. You can read it in her book Jane Austen: Her Homes & Her Friends available in digital form here.
Today you can stay in the basement of the house (the former kitchen) as a holiday rental. For more details click here.
no.3 green park buildings east
Green Park Buildings (West)
Mr Austen took out the lease here in October 1804. It was cheaper to rent than Sydney Place, suggesting that money was a worry for him by this time.
When the family moved in, there were two rows of houses around the green space of Kingsmead Fields (now Green Park). The Austens occupied a house on the eastern side which was destroyed by bombs in 1942. A mirror image row of houses still stands on the western side to give us a good indication of what it would have looked like.
Jane and Mrs Austen had considered a property here when they first moved to Bath in 1801 (see Bath Viewings Page) but rejected it because of the rooms being damp.
By 1804, however, they were more accepting of the conditions, relying on the benefits of space and greenery instead. The neighbourhood was popular with retired clergymen and military veterans.
Green Park, Bath.
It turned out to be an ominous move, as Mr Austen lived here only a matter of weeks before his death. He had suffered from bouts of ill health and fevers already over the winter, but his passing on the morning of Monday 21st January, 1805 was not expected.
Mrs Austen, Cassandra and Jane stayed on at Green Park East for a few more weeks, but without a man in the household, Mrs Austen was at the mercy of her sons to help support them all. By March, 1805 the ladies had moved to temporary rooms in Gay Street.
Alan Thwaite conducted a micro study of Green Park for his publication 'Green Park: Residence, Residents and Change in the 19th Century'. This provides a wonderfully detailed analysis of the two streets using census data and library collections. It is available to read on the historyofbath.org website here.
25 gay street
Mrs Austen, Jane and Cassandra moved here on 25th March 1805. They did not stay for long, as they spent the summer travelling between relatives in Kent and Steventon, and then several weeks by the sea in Worthing.
The Austen's old family friend, Charles Fowle, took lodgings in 20 Gay Street for a time in 1805. He was cousin the the newly orphaned Martha Lloyd who also found herself without a home following the death of her own mother in April 1805.
As Martha was unmarried with no living parents, she, too, was at the mercy of her relatives to support her. The decision was made that she would join the Austen ladies in their household and they would all live together and pool their resources.
Today 25 Gay Street is a dentist, but apart from the arrival of modern roads, the houses still look similar to how they would have done in 1805.
the jane austen centre
A few steps further down the road, at number 40 Gay Street, you will find the Jane Austen Centre and Regency Tea Rooms.
Knowledgable guides bring the Regency Period to life with their talks and you will find displays and information boards to give a colourful insight into the city when the Austens were there.
You can access the museum website here.
trim street
Early in the new year of 1806, the Austen ladies returned to Bath after staying with relatives and took up lodgings in Trim Street. Whether this was by choice (due to finance) or necessity (as the only available rooms at the time) we will never know, but it was only ever intended to be a temporary arrangement until they could find something better. It was too small even to accommodate Martha, who lodged elsewhere in the town during this time.
As you can see from the Bath Viewings page, it was not the most pleasant place to live at the start of the 19th century.
Despite their best attempts, they could not find anywhere else and so, following an offer from Frank Austen to house them all in Southampton, they left Bath in July 1806 and did not return.
Bath homes extract
If you would like to read an extract from The Austens of Bath where events take place in one of these family homes click here.
REFERENCES
Austen-Leigh, W., Austen-Leigh R.A. and Le Faye D. (1989) Jane Austen: A Family Record. London: The British Library. pp.117-137
Hill, C. (1901) Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends. dodopress.co.uk: Dodo Press. pp.84-89
Le Faye, D. (2013) ‘1801: midsummer’ in A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.260
Le Faye, D. (2013) ‘1804: June 25, Quarter day,’ in A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.298.
Le Faye, D. (2013) ‘1804: October 25, Thursday’ in A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.303.
Le Faye, D. (2013) ‘1805: March 25, Monday’ in A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.308.
Le Faye, D. (2013) ‘1805: April 11, Thursday’ in A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.309.
Le Faye, D. (2013) ‘1805: Jun 19, Wednesday’ in A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.311.
Le Faye, D. (2013) ‘1806: April’ in A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.327.
Le Faye, D. (2013) ‘1806: July 2, Wednesday’ in A Chronology of Jane Austen and her Family 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.329.
Le Faye, D (2011) 'Letters 40-44: Monday 21 January 1805 - Sunday 21 to Tuesday 23 April 1805' in Jane Austen's Letters - Fourth Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 100-111.
Townsend, T. (2015) Jane Austen and Bath. Somerset: Halsgrove.
Worsley, L. (2017) Jane Austen at Home. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. pp. 202-207 & 243-257.