Each year, on 23 April, celebrations take place all over the world to recognize the scope of books – a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures. Here are the best ways to celebrate books in Winchester today!
Winchester has stacks of places to buy your next favourite book. Take a tour around the city and tick each shop off your bookish bucket list! Browse one of Britain’s oldest bookshops at P&G Wells, making sure to pop upstairs for the latest books for little ones. Tucked into the corner of Winchester Cathedral’s Inner Close, you will find The Deanery Bookstall – a treasure trove of pre-loved reads. Hidden down Winchester’s quaint alleyways, The Winchester Bookshop is another must-visit for antiquarian, second-hand, vintage and nearly new books. A staple of Winchester book hauls is Oxfam Books on Parchment Street, filled to the brim with books for all ages and interests.
📚 Discover your next favourite book at a local LibraryWinchester, Alresford and Bishop’s Waltham are home to a rich and diverse collection of books, specially selected to inform and inspire. They offer books for all ages and interests, so have a wander around the stacks to find your next great read. For the littlest readers, Hampshire Libraries hosts Rhymetime, Storytime, Read Aloud, Family Fun and more! Check out your local library’s event calendar here.
Step back in time to 1816 and follow in Jane’s footsteps at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton. Discover the rooms where she lived and wrote and see her writing table, jewellery, letters and first editions of her novels up close. In Winchester, you can walk along College Street, where Jane spent her last weeks, and see her final resting place at Winchester Cathedral. In Selbourne, you can visit naturalist Gilbert White’s 17th century home. The museum highlights include, the original manuscript of ‘The Natural History of Selborne’, White’s 18th century floral embroidered bed covers and White’s taxidermy hawfinch. Around Winchester, you can also enjoy a self-guided walk in poet John Keats’ footsteps from the city to St Cross, passing through the landscape which inspired his famous ode ‘To Autumn’.
