The famous Eagle and Child pub in Oxford has been acquired by the Ellision Institute of Technology (EIT) and will now be refurbished by Foster + Partners.
The pub, which dates from 1684 and later became famous for its use by a literary group called The Inklings which included JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, was closed due to lockdown and has not reopened.
Vendor St John’s College announced the acquisition on October 19.
A new restaurant will be added to what will be the first Foster + Partners designed pub.
Dr David Agus, EIT founding director and chief executive, who is also a faculty fellow along with Tony Blair, said:“The Eagle and Child pub is a truly historic venue that has hosted some of the greatest minds Oxford has had to offer for over 300 years.
“We are humbled and proud to be able to safeguard this treasured pub’s future and continue its legacy as a place for brilliant people to come together, including for our Ellison Scholars.
“The Ellison Institute of Technology is delighted – through the acquisition of this beloved
space and the construction of our new Oxford Campus – to be able to put the city at the heart of our mission to help solve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity.”
For more than 20 years from the 1930s onwards The Inklings group would meet in a room in the pub, now known as the Rabbit Room.
The group later used the Lamb & Flag pub opposite which also closed in lockdown but has since been reopened by a community interest company which has called itself The Inklings.
Image: Adam.thomp07, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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