Eagle and Child, Oxford — A Lost Old Pub

What happened

The Eagle and Child was a narrow house at 49 St Giles' with two small parlours behind its frontage, and its fame rests on three decades in the middle of the twentieth century, when C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien and the rest of the Inklings met in the back room they called the Rabbit Room. Lewis handed round the proofs of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe there in June 1950. The date usually given for the pub is 1650, repeated in Oxford's own street histories without a document behind it. What the record carries is a building Historic England dates to the sixteenth century, and a first mention of the sign in 1684, when Richard Platt was licensed to hang out an eagle and child. A rear extension in 1962 cost the Rabbit Room its privacy and the Inklings moved across the road to the Lamb and Flag. University College held the freehold until 2003, when it sold to St John's. The pub closed in March 2020 and has not poured since.

What is there now

Standing empty and under restoration. The Ellison Institute of Technology bought the Grade II listed building in October 2023, and in October 2025 was granted planning permission and listed building consent for a Foster + Partners scheme that keeps the two historic parlour rooms as a pub and adds a dining room, bakery, cafe and garden, with meeting rooms for its scholars above. Completion is estimated for 2027, so the Eagle and Child may yet return to this site.

Location recorded from Wikipedia.

Sources

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