Bookish Bath: 15 Things to Do in Bath, England, for Literature Lovers
Recently I spent two nights in Bath, and as an English Lit graduate and someone currently working her way through all of Jane Austen’s novels, I couldn’t have picked a better place to spend a weekend.
Bath isn’t subtle about its literary connections. This is the place that shaped Jane Austen, hosted Mary Shelley while she worked on Frankenstein, and even turned up in one of Frances Burney’s novels, which I read in my first year of uni.
Not only does Bath have a very literary history, but every other street is home to an independent bookshop, and there are countless Bath attractions that crop up time and time again in Georgian literature.
So, if you’re the bookish sort, this guide is for you. It’s going to be a long one, so make a coffee, grab a snack, and let’s get into it.
Top Bookish Things to Do in Bath at a Glance
If you only have a day or two and want to hit the highlights without wandering aimlessly (although wandering aimlessly around Bath is a whole activity in itself), here’s your shortlist:
- Jane Austen Centre
- No.1 Royal Crescent Museum
- Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein
- The Roman Baths
- Afternoon Tea at The Pump Rooms
- Topping & Company Booksellers
- Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights
- George Bayntun’s bookbindery
Buy in Advance
- Jane Austen Centre
- The Frankenstein Experience Walking Tour and Museum Ticket
- Afternoon Tea at The Regency Tea Room
- Bridgerton Filming Locations Tour (this counts because Bridgerton was based on a book series!)
- Roman Baths Entry with Audio Guide
15 Best Things to Do in Bath for Literature Lovers
1. The Jane Austen Centre
This museum was my first port of call in Bath, and if you’re an Austen nerd, this is unmissable.
The staff here are all kitted out in period costumes and take on the roles of Jane Austen’s most beloved characters (our group was led by Marianne from Sense and Sensibility!). I loved their passion, and you could tell that they were genuine Austen fans.
The exhibition itself is packed with interesting detail about what Austen’s life in Bath looked like as well as a fascinating insight into the various depictions of Austen’s image (the portrait her sister made was apparently ‘very unflattering,’ and not at all how Jane was said to have looked!).
There’s a Jane Austen waxwork which has been painstakingly designed by multiple artists, working from accounts of Austen’s appearance, including how her nephew described her.
At the end of the exhibit, you’ll have the opportunity to try on some period costumes and take photos (I definitely wanted to do this, but felt a bit silly as I was visiting the museum alone), and there’s also a gift shop with some lovely editions of her work, as well as jewellery and other souvenirs.
I will say that this really is a museum built for Austen fans. If you’re not genuinely interested in Jane Austen and her life, you might find The Jane Austen Centre a bit too niche and/or pricey.
Even if the exhibition isn’t for you, it’s worth popping into the Regency Tea Room upstairs for a pot of tea and some cake, or having a browse in the gift shop.
Need to know
You can buy tickets on GetYourGuide.
Jane Austen Centre address: 40 Gay Street, Bath BA1 2NT (Google Maps link).
R: The outside of the Jane Austen Centre
2. Topping & Company Booksellers
Topping & Co is the kind of bookshop that you can easily spend the entire day in. It’s got lots of little alcoves and wooden ladders to get to the hard-to-reach books, and you can even ask for a complimentary tea or coffee while you browse!
I saw a man enjoying a pot of tea on the balcony with a stack of about ten books in front of him, clearly trying to narrow down his choices!
Need to know
Topping & Co. is known for its packed calendar of author events, so it’s worth checking what’s on while you’re in town.
Topping & Company address: York Street, Bath BA1 1NG (Google Maps).
3. Hunt for Second-hand Books at the Guildhall Market
The Guildhall Market is a wonderful place to have a browse, whether you’re looking for some artisan cheese, leather goods, or coffee and scones at Jane’s Espresso Bar.
While you’re there, don’t miss Skoobs Books, the second-hand paperback book stall tucked among the stalls and a mix of crime thrillers, literary classics, and everything in-between.
Skoobs has been trading for more than 40 years, so it’s part of the furniture here. You can even sell your old books here!
I picked up a battered copy of The Castle of Otranto here, which I’ve been looking for for a while!
Need to know
Bath Guildhall Market address: High Street, Bath BA2 4AW (Google Maps link).
4. Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights
Mr B’s has twice been named Independent Bookshop of the Year, and it shows.
It’s a bright, sprawling shop over three floors (it’s so much bigger than I initially thought when I first entered!), complete with a ‘bibliotherapy room’ where you can book a ‘Mr B’s Reading Spa‘: an hour with a bibliotherapist, tea and cake, and a personalised pile of books at the end of it!
I love the concept of the Reading Spa, and I’ll definitely be back at some point to indulge in one of them!
Need to know
Mr B’s Emporium address: 14-15 John Street, Bath BA1 2JL (Google Maps link).
5. Walk the Royal Crescent
You can’t do a literary tour of Bath without walking the Royal Crescent.
This sweeping curve of Georgian townhouses is the backdrop to so much Regency-era fiction, and it’s just as striking in person as it looks in every period drama ever filmed here.
Give yourself a few minutes to just stand and admire it – this was the place to see and be seen back in the day, and it isn’t difficult to understand why.
6. No.1 Royal Crescent Museum
This was one of my absolute favourite things I did in Bath, and I almost didn’t go!
No.1 Royal Crescent is a restored Georgian townhouse museum, furnished exactly as it would have been between 1776 and 1796, and it’s set up so you explore both the elegant rooms upstairs and the working servants’ quarters below.
What made it for me was how immersive it is – the multimedia exhibition changes throughout the year but when I visited, it centred around a Georgian family spending the season in Bath.
In each of the elegant rooms of their home, snippets of the families’ daily life are played through hidden speakers, from society gossip to family dilemmas.
Walking through the rooms gave me a real sense of what it meant to live in Georgian Bath as the kind of society lady that Austen was writing about. It’s the closest I’ve come to feeling like I’d stepped inside one of her novels (even more so than The Jane Austen Centre!).
Need to know
Admission costs £16, with family and concession pricing available. With a ticket, you can visit the museum as many times in a year as you want, which is especially important to make a note of as they have different exhibitions on throughout the year.
You can find out more on their website.
No.1 Royal Crescent address: 1 Royal Crescent, Bath BA1 2LR (Google Maps link).
7. Persephone Books
Persephone Books is an incredibly unique and interesting bookshop, and it also doubles as a publisher.
Its entire mission is rescuing and reprinting neglected fiction and non-fiction by women, mostly from the early to mid-20th century, from being forgotten. Every book comes in the same understated grey cover with a completely different, gorgeous patterned endpaper inside, plus a bookmark to match.
What I loved most was the ethos of ‘domestic feminism,’ – books about ordinary women’s lives, marriages, work, and households, that were dismissed as too small or too domestic to matter at the time, and are now being read as exactly the important work they always were.
If you want books that centre women’s interior lives, this is your shop.
Need to know
Persephone Books address: 8 Edgar Buildings, Bath BA1 2EE (Google Maps link).
8. Bath Old Books
Bath Old Books is a real Aladdin’s cave specialising in second-hand and antiquarian books, with particularly strong sections on Jane Austen and Bath itself.
When you enter the shop it looks tiny, but there’s a large basement with a real treasure trove of books to dig through. I’m hesitant to use the term ‘hidden gem,’ as I’m sure Bath residents are very familiar with this place, but I will say that Bath Old Books strikes me as a place not frequented by many tourists, which made it all the more special to me.
I had a lovely chat with the shopkeeper, who wasn’t pushy at all, but gave me some great recommendations for things to do in Bath (including some fantastic pubs!).
I left with an old copy of Les Misérables, which definitely made my luggage a lot heavier, but for £3, it would have been rude not to.
Need to know
Bath Old Books address: 9C Margaret’s Buildings, Bath BA1 2LP (Google Maps link).
9. The Frankenstein Experience Walking Tour
Bath doesn’t only claim Jane Austen. Mary Shelley lived here in 1816, the year she started writing Frankenstein, and if you know anything about Mary Shelley’s life you’ll know that it was full of tragedy, drama, and scandal (which we have Percy Bysshe Shelley to thank, for the most part).
The Frankenstein Experience is a one-hour immersive theatrical walking tour that taking you through Bath’s Regency side streets and uncovering the secrets, lies, suicides, and scandals that followed Shelley throughout her life and while she was crafting her Gothic masterpiece.
I learned so much about Mary Shelley on this tour, and particularly liked the theatrical nature of it. I would recommend it to anyone visiting Bath.
Need to know
The Frankenstein Experience costs £21 and includes admission to the House of Frankenstein Museum. When you consider that museum admission alone is £16, I think that combining this with the tour is a no-brainer. You can get your tickets here.
10. Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein
Visiting Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein is a must, especially if you’ve just done the walking tour.
It’s spread across four atmospheric floors of an old townhouse, working through Mary Shelley’s biography before descending into displays on Frankenstein’s pop culture legacy.
The last bit of the museum is in the basement, where there’s an immersive walkthrough with special effects and actors in costume – this bit really spooked me, especially as I was visiting alone! I screamed more times than I care to admit.
Need to know
General admission is around £16, and tickets are available on the website or when you enter the museum itself. You can also combine museum entry with the walking tour I mentioned previously for £21, which I think is much better value than paying for museum entry alone. You can get your combined walking tour and museum tickets here.
Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein address: 37 Gay Street, Bath BA1 2NT (Google Maps)
11. The Roman Baths
The Roman Baths aren’t just Bath’s headline tourist attraction, they’re also a literary location. Frances Burney’s Evelina, which basically invented the epistolary comedy of manners that Austen would later perfect, features Bath’s social scene prominently, and the Baths were very much part of that world.
Even if you haven’t read Evelina, The Roman Baths are by far the most popular of Bath’s attractions, and one of the most important things to do in Bath.
Need to know
Fair warning – the Baths get incredibly busy, so booking ahead is essential. You can get your tickets and audio guide here.
Roman Baths address: Abbey Churchyard, Bath BA1 1LZ (Google Maps link)
12. The Jane Austen Festival
I wasn’t in town at the right time for this one, unfortunately, but it would be remiss not to mention it. The Jane Austen Festival in Bath is the largest and longest-running Jane Austen Festival in the world, and it holds the Guinness World Record for the ‘Largest gathering of people dressed in Regency costumes.’
Every September, Bath fills with thousands of people in full Regency dress for a ten-day festival of guided walks, costumed balls, workshops, and a huge promenade through the city centre that starts at the Royal Crescent.
Need to know
The 2026 festival runs from 11 to 20 September, with the main promenade taking place on 12 September. You can visit the website to learn more.
13. The Pump Room
I read about the Pump Rooms in Northanger Abbey at the start of the year. There was something so uncanny about standing in the actual Georgian ballroom where Catherine Morland was meant to see and be seen by ‘every creature in Bath,’ and where both Jane Austen and Charles Dickens have spent time!
The ballroom is incredibly impressive, and is now home to a fancy restaurant where you can enjoy an afternoon tea. I didn’t manage to on this trip, but it’s high on my list for next time.
If you don’t want to book an afternoon tea or dine at the restaurant itself but you still want a quick nosy, just ask the staff – they had no problem with me having a quick peek inside and snapping some pictures!
Need to know
You can read about what’s on at The Pump Room and check out the various menus and offerings on their website.
The Pump Room address: Abbey Churchyard, Bath BA1 1LZ (Google Maps link).
14. George Bayntun’s Bookbindery
This one is for people like me, who loves books as physical objects just as much as for what’s inside them.
George Bayntun is one of the most famous bookbinderies in the world, home to the Bayntun-Rivière bindery, which has been hand-binding and restoring books since 1829. Queen Mary was reportedly a regular visitor, and the firm still holds a royal warrant.
Downstairs, the second-hand and antiquarian book department has stock to suit every budget, and if you’re lucky you might catch a glimpse of the bindery at work at the back of the shop.
The bindery is a proper working craft business (not a tourist attraction dressed up as one), so do check opening hours before you go (they close for lunch), and remember to be respectful while you’re there.
Need to know
George Bayntun address: 23 Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1JW (Google Maps link).
Note that the shop closes for one hour at lunchtime and is closed on weekends. You can find their opening hour in the Google Maps link above.
15. Cream Tea with a View at Pulteney Bridge Coffee Shop
One of my favourite bookish things to do in Bath wasn’t a museum or a bookshop, but simply sitting down to read for an hour in this lovely café!
Pulteney Bridge Coffee Shop is actually built into Pulteney Bridge, and if you can snag the window seat, you get uninterrupted views over Pulteney Weir while you eat.
You can order a traditional cream tea, or choose from a selection of cakes and sandwiches. I personally got a cappuccino and it was lovely, and the girl who served me was really friendly as well.
Seating is limited and the window table is obviously very in demand, so try to time your visit for outside the obvious lunch rush, and be prepared to wait a few minutes for a table with a view (I was at a different table when I arrived and made sure to pounce when the window seat became available!).
Need to know
Pulteney Bridge Coffee Shop address: 17 Pulteney Bridge, Bath BA2 4AT (Google Maps link)
Things to Do in Bath FAQ
Is Bath worth visiting for book lovers specifically?
Absolutely. Between the Jane Austen and Mary Shelley connections, the sheer density of excellent independent bookshops, and locations that appear directly in novels like Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Evelina, Bath rewards literary travellers more than almost any other UK city.
Is Bath worth visiting for non-bookish travellers?
Of course! Bath is a beautiful city with lots of things to see and do, and is definitely worth visiting for non-readers.
Why is Bath UK so famous?
Bath is famous for being the only entire city designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is celebrated worldwide for its ancient Roman hot springs, 18th-century Georgian architecture, and rich literary history.Â
Is Bath UK classed as The Cotswolds?
No, the city of Bath is not in the Cotswolds. It sits just outside the official Cotswolds National Landscape and is located in the county of Somerset.
How many days do you need in Bath?
Two days is enough to hit the highlights in this guide comfortably, but I would personally recommend spending three days in Bath if you want to take things slowly and relax a little more.
Where to stay in Bath?
I stayed at the 4-star The Abbey Hotel Bath, which was perfectly located in the city centre and less than 10 minutes on foot from the train station. I would definitely stay here again, and can highly recommend it.
Do I need to book the Jane Austen Centre and House of Frankenstein in advance?
It’s not always essential, but both get busy, especially in summer and during the Jane Austen Festival in September, so I’d recommend booking ahead to avoid disappointment.
Bookish Things to Do in Bath | Final Thoughts
Bath is one of those cities where the literary history is baked into the streets, the buildings, and the passion the locals have for Bath’s history and literary legacy.
Whether you’re an Austen devotee, a Frankenstein fan, or just someone who can’t walk past a second-hand bookshop without going in, there are plenty of things to do in Bath to fill a bookish weekend.
I hope this has given you a decent starting point for your own trip. As always, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to help.
Until next time,
XOXO
My visit to Bath was sponsored by Visit Bath. My hotel stay, walking tour, and museum tickets were complimentary. As always, all opinions are my own.
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