Good news for Tolkien pilgrims: the Eagle and Child pub on St Giles in Oxford is on course to reopen in 2027, according to its new owner, the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT). The pub, affectionately called “The Bird and Baby” by the Inklings, has been silent since it closed in March 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown.
St John’s College sold the building in 2023 for approximately £8 million ($10.7M) to EIT, the research organisation founded by Oracle’s Larry Ellison. The sale drew some concern from CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) and local Oxford drinkers who saw little visible activity for months behind the hoardings. EIT has now clarified that a full interior refurbishment and restoration is actively under way and remains on schedule.
EIT is working with architect Norman Foster of Foster + Partners on the project. Plans include removing a 1960s rear extension to open up the back garden, while the historic ground-floor pub and traditional frontage will be fully restored. The upper floors will become meeting rooms for EIT, which is separately developing a £1 billion Oxford Science Park in the city.
The Eagle and Child was the regular Tuesday morning gathering spot for the Inklings — J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Hugo Dyson, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and others — from the mid-1930s through 1962. In the pub’s back room, known as the Rabbit Room, early chapters of The Lord of the Rings were read aloud and debated. Lewis brought drafts of Out of the Silent Planet and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to the same table.
The building sat empty for more than five years. The confirmation that it will reopen as a working pub — with its historic character intact — is welcome. We will continue to track progress as 2027 approaches.
