It would be easy to walk past 4 Sydney Place without a second glance. One of many handsome Georgian townhouses of Bath, 156 kilometres west of London, its honey-coloured stone glows in the sun with the rest of the city. But a plaque on the wall reveals the story within. This was Jane ’s home between 1801 and 1804, where she lived with her parents and older sister, Cassandra, after leaving the family’s rectory in Steventon, Hampshire, an address now long gone.

While the house has been carved into private flats with Austenian names – Mr Darcy presides over the second floor, Cassandra keeps the first – the real charm lies in the basement. Once the butler’s pantry and kitchen, where Jane brewed the family’s tea, it’s now a well-dressed Airbnb, with a wood-framed antique bed in the master bedroom. In the flagstone-floor sitting room, a wooden desk tucked into what was the vast fireplace positively begs for an author with a quill.