Jane Austen in London

This is the location of Tilson's bank, in Henrietta Street Covent Garden,where Jane Austen stayed in 1813/1814 when she visited London. Her brother Henry Austen was a partner in the bank at that time. The plaque on the wall was put there in 1999 by the Jane Austen Society and the City of Westminster.

In 1814, Henry moved from his rooms above his bank to a house he purchased in Hans Place in Knightsbridge. Today, the area, developed by Henry Holland, looks much different than when Jane and Henry knew it

In Hans Place, Jane had the use of a downstairs room that opened into the garden, and she describes her pattern of working indoors, then taking a break in the garden: “I go & refresh myself every now & then, and then come back to Solitary Coolness.”
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• We hear of a small evening party to be given in Hans Place whilst Fanny is staying there with her aunt. After describing the morning engagements, Jane writes: "Then came the dinner and Mr. Haden, who brought good manners and clever conversation. From seven to eight the harp; at eight Mrs. L. and Miss E. arrived, and for the rest of the evening the drawing-room was thus arranged: on the sofa the two ladies, Henry and myself, making the best of it; on the opposite side Fanny and Mr. Haden, in two chairs (I believe, at least, they had two chairs), talking together uninterruptedly. Fancy the scene! And what is to be fancied next? Why that Mr. H. dines here again to-morrow. . . Mr. H. is reading 'Mansfield Park' for the first time, and prefers it to P. and P."
• In the autumn of 1815 she nursed her brother Henry through a dangerous fever and slow convalescence at his house in Hans Place. He was attended by one of the Prince Regent's physicians."
• Apropos of London shopping, Jane speaks of having some "superfluous wealth" to spend. Was it, we wonder, from the proceeds of "Sense and Sensibility"? "I hope," she writes to her sister, "that I shall find some poplin at Layton and Shear's that will tempt me to buy it. Layton and Shear's shop, we find, was at 11, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.
• One day Jane orders a cap for herself. "It will be white satin and lace," she writes, "and a little white flower perking out of the left ear, like Harriet Byron's feather."
• In one of her "Letters" she speaks of going to  the Liverpool Museum and to the British Gallery. "I had some amusement at each," she writes, "though my preference for men and women always inclines me to attend more to the company than the sight."