A stay at the Garden House in Jane Austen's Chawton
Views from the Road #1 - Sharing my favourite Airbnb in the world
This is the first article in the Views from the Road column, where I share stories from my years of travelling, including my experience as a digital nomad across Europe.
To catch up on previous newsletters, head to the Substack online version, where you can see all the different columns. It’s my favourite way to discover writers’ previous work.
Hello! I hope you are having a lovely week, wherever you are in the world. Paris is showing off the first signs of spring, and I can spot the first white and pink blooms on the trees from my window as I write the newsletter.
I decided to start the Views from The Road newsletters by sharing my favourite Airbnb find in the world. Plus, I have already written three newsletters and not mentioned Jane Austen yet, so I had to remedy that.
Last December I planned a Christmas trip to the UK with my parents. We wanted to see the lights in London, visit Bath, and my mum and I added a stop at Jane Austen House in Chawton. I had also surprised her on her birthday with tickets to the Christmas markets weekend at Highclere Castle (of Downton Abbey fame)!
It was such a lovely trip and I ticked off a few bucket list places I have been wanting to see since my time living in London. I will write more about our itinerary, but today I wanted to share our first stay of the trip which turned out to be my favourite Airbnb find in the world so far! And that says a lot because I lived in Airbnbs for over a year during my and my husband’s travels across Europe in 2023 and booked plenty more for holidays.
The Garden House in Jane Austen's Chawton
I came across the Garden House while looking for a place to sleep in Chawton, the small Hampshire village where Jane Austen lived for the last eight years of her life in the cottage that is today the Jane Austen House Museum.
While the museum attracts visitors from all over the world, the village itself is very small and most places to stay are in nearby Alton. However, while I was looking on Airbnb I came across pictures of the Garden House and fell in love. The cottage used to be part of the Chawton House estate, inherited by one of Jane Austen’s brothers, Edward, who offered Jane, his mother and sister Cassandra to live in the cottage in the village that is now the museum.
The Airbnb was, as you might have guessed, Chawton House gardener’s cottage. When the family’s heir couldn’t keep up the entire estate in the 1960s he sold off some of the land and smaller buildings and transformed Chawton House into a museum as well. The Garden House is set on the land of historical gardens and it was in fact the third walled garden of the main House.
It is run by a lovely couple, Kate and Mark, who have refurbished it into a stunning family house and welcomed us into their home with warmth and plenty of stories. We slept in the cute double bedroom upstairs that has a third smaller bed and an ensuite bathroom. Another double bedroom is available if there are more guests. In the morning, they served us English breakfast in the Dining Room which was part of the original cottage and had a stunning view of the gardens. Before heading off to explore Chawton we peeked at the gorgeous Drawing Room where you can have tea in front of the fireplace.
I can’t recommend Kate and Mark’s place enough and I wish the weather hadn’t been so rainy so that we could have enjoyed the gardens, but it just means I will have to come back!
While writing this, I came across a new stunning Airbnb listing next door: a stay in one of the buildings of the main House, the North Wing of Chawton House. It looks like it was recently refurbished and can host up to six guests across three bedrooms.
This year, the Jane Austen House is celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth with a programme filled with fun festivals themed after each of her books and beautiful exhibitions. The perfect time to book your stay!
📚 Views from the Shelf - A book to match your stay
While the Jane Austen House was the main reason for our visit, I was also really interested in exploring Chawton House because its Library houses a large collection of early feminist works with over 4,500 rare and early editions of works by women writers who lived between 1660 and 1860.
I first found out about this in the historical novel The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner*, whose books I adore. While it is a work of fiction, the descriptions of Chatwon House and the nearby area are incredibly realistic. It’s the wonderful story of a group of people trying to save the library and Austen’s heritage. It also mentions the gardener’s cottage so it’s the perfect book to pair with a stay at the Airbnb.
You can read the book in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and more languages.
🏨 What is your favourite Airbnb/hotel/rental in the world? Share it in the comments as I love to discover new amazing stays away from home!
I’ll be back on Sunday with the second Sunday’s Trouvailles and an announcement for the first session of The long-distance Creative Club: Monthly calls with like-minded creatives living around the world and navigating life across places.
* These links may contain affiliate links to Bookshop.org and other websites that allow me to earn a small commission if you make any purchases via the newsletter.