There is plenty going on in 2025, but here’s a few of the top highlights.
A year of celebration for Hampshire – and for Jane Austen fans worldwide
One of Hampshire’s best loved daughters, Jane Austen, has been a household name for more than two centuries, but 2025 marks a major milestone… the 250th anniversary of her birth. Hampshire was not only where she was born, wrote all her novels and died, but its people and society provided inspiration for many of her novels. Anniversary celebrations will be held across the county including Steventon, where she was born; Chawton; Alton; Winchester; Southampton and Portsmouth, culminating in her birthday on 16 December 2025. Highlights include special events at Jane Austen’s House, while No. 8 College Street, Winchester – where she spent the last weeks of her life – will open to the public for the first time.
Photo: Luke Shears
…and a rare chance to turn the clocks back to Jane Austen’s school days
Reading will be revealing its own links with Jane Austen as part of the 250th anniversary, including a rare chance to turn the clocks back to Jane Austen’s school days. Fans will have the opportunity to discover a less well-known side to her story, and to visit a site connected to the writer that they have likely never seen before. To date, the location of Jane’s school has only been open for educational workshops and booked tours, but from April to October 2025, the public will have the opportunity to visit the school in the dramatic setting of the former Gateway to medieval Reading Abbey.
Photo: REDA
Hull’s historic maritime attractions finally set for £40m reveal
Visitors to Hull will be given a first glimpse of the city’s new-look maritime attractions when the Spurn Lightship re-opens as a floating museum in spring 2025, before the whole £40m scheme is fully revealed in 2026. Hull Maritime – one of the UK’s most challenging and complex restoration projects – has taken over five years of work but will see the city become home to some of the country’s best-preserved seafaring attractions. Hull’s other nationally significant ship, the Arctic Corsair, is expected to open late 2025 as part of a new £3.8m visitor attraction, featuring one of the most energy efficient buildings in the UK’s cultural and heritage sector. Completing the line-up will be a totally refurbished Maritime Museum, with new-look galleries and extra facilities, which will welcome visitors in early 2026.
Photo: Arctic Corsair, Neil Holmes Photography/Hull City Council
Potter down to Stoke-on-Trent for a centenary celebration
A six-week celebration of clay will again shine a creative spotlight on The Potteries as the UK’s largest contemporary ceramics event returns to Stoke-on-Trent in Autumn 2025 – crowning a centenary year for this World Craft City. Staged every two years, the free-entry British Ceramics Biennial returns to the spiritual home of British pottery in a year that marks 100 years since being officially awarded city status. The borough was declared a city by King George V during a visit on 5 June 1925. Commemorative events are set to be staged throughout 2025 in the city, which is also undergoing a multi-million-pound regeneration. Honouring the city’s rich history, culture and identity, a Centenary Celebration Weekend will be staged 7 and 8 June.
… while it’s 20 up for Trentham Monkey Forest
The only place in the UK where visitors can walk amongst 140 free roaming Barbaray macaques, which are endangered in the wild, turns 20. Trentham Monkey Forest, in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, opened on 19 July 2005 and has since seen over 100 babies born and welcomed thousands of visitors. Among 20th birthday celebrations in 2025 will be the unveiling of a monkey face mosaic from hundreds of pictures taken at the attraction.
Photo: Trentham Monkey Forest
Going ‘loco’ in Hampshire for Rail200
It’s faster than the famous Flying Scotsman, is the oldest surviving preserved Merchant Navy class locomotive and was built largely by a female workforce. It’s also coming home in 2025, fittingly in the year that marks the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. After a 13-year restoration bringing one of Britain’s most iconic steam-era locomotives back to life, the Canadian Pacific will be launched on Hampshire heritage railway, the Watercress Line, in March 2025. The launch week offers the first opportunity to ride behind the locomotive since restoration, while visitor experiences will include exclusive dining, themed journeys, and heritage rides inspired by the golden age of steam travel.
Food for thought in East Yorkshire
A £4m redevelopment of Goole’s historic Market Hall will see it serving up some of the best brews and local street food in the country when it opens in 2025. As the East Yorkshire port town gears up to celebrate its bi centenary in 2026, a series of major investments are breathing new life into the area. With a rich maritime heritage Goole – the UK’s most inland port town – is set for a multi-million-pound boost ahead of summer 2026 when it will mark the 200th anniversary of the ‘Company’ town and port’s official opening. Leading the way is the transformation of the Victorian Market Hall into a vibrant food hall, live music and events venue, with the hope that it will become a central part of Goole’s ‘cultural quarter’.
Photo: Lee Cocker
The ‘Rat Pack’ heads for Hull and East Yorkshire
Following on from popular sculpture trails Puffins Galore, a new colourful trail will bring 50 giant rat sculptures to the region next year – inspired by a music legend. From May to August 2025 A Mischief of Rats trail of artist decorated sculptures will pay tribute to Hull musician Mick Ronson, ahead of the 80th anniversary of his birth in 2026. Best known as guitarist with David Bowie’s ‘Spiders from Mars’, he first joined hometown band ‘The Rats’.
Photo: A Mischief of Rats