The Eagle and Child pub is closed.

Honza

Honza

Member
The lockdown hit the pub hard. It closed soon after and is still closed today. I did hear the building needs serious renovation. I'm sure there are plans to reopen it sometime, but it may be a while. On the opposite side of the road is the pub called The Lamb and Flag. This is well known too. It closed for a while as well, but has reopened now. The world is a constantly changing place. Town centres are being hit hard by internet shopping and scores of stores are closing in town centres all over the UK.
 
Honza said:
An American group has bought the pub. They will renovate it and reopen.

www.oxfordmail.co.uk

Plea to reopen historic city centre pub 'as soon as possible'

An Oxford tour guide has called for the Eagle and Child pub to be reopened as soon as possible.
www.oxfordmail.co.uk www.oxfordmail.co.uk
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Looks like the architecture firm they hired is the same one that did the Apple HQ as well as many other very modern looking buildings. A shame that it was left to rot and I am assuming the character and authenticity of it will be lost after renovations (assumption).
 
It is the real pub. I have often said that if those walls had ears...they'd look really creepy....
 
I have been lucky enough to visit the pub before it closed, well before it back in 2001. The literary history in that pub is second to none in my opinion. What I loved about it when I stopped in for a pint was the fact that it was not touristy and obviously was not pushing that Tolkien and Lewis among others gathered there. There was a small area on a wall and that was it. It is now being renovated and it is going to be used for more then pub fair.

"Our sensitive interventions will create an all-day meeting place by introducing an adjacent café and inspirational workspaces for EIT across the upper levels," he said.

"The scheme is stitched together by a newly landscaped garden and restored passageway between the café and the pub – new social spaces that transition effortlessly from day to night."

www.bbc.com

Plans to reopen Tolkien and Lewis pub in Oxford approved

Planning permission and listed building consent is granted to restore The Eagle and Child in Oxford.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

I have trouble believing people will be that sensitive to what made that pub great when money is to be made. It is sad that the whole fiasco that was covid was pretty much what led this historic pub into its grave. I hope I am wrong, but I feel that never again will it be that pub that you could sit in and enjoy simply for a pint or at the same time because you wanted to visit a place where some of the greatest minds sat around and talked on a regular basis. When there is money to be made I think capitalism will ruin it.
 
One can but hope. However...and this is an important however...the building itself has no feelings. The reverence one feels when sitting in the chairs is a personal one between you and what happened there, and that won't diminish unless you allow it to.

There is a great deal of money to be made off romance and marriage, yet despite it all, some people fall deeply in love and live unselfish lives of mutual devotion.
 
EveningStar said:
One can but hope. However...and this is an important however...the building itself has no feelings. The reverence one feels when sitting in the chairs is a personal one between you and what happened there, and that won't diminish unless you allow it to.

There is a great deal of money to be made off romance and marriage, yet despite it all, some people fall deeply in love and live unselfish lives of mutual devotion.
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While I agree, I am not sure where that came from. I don't think it was ever implied that the building itself is something living being with feelings. The value is strictly given by the people. If no one cared for Lewis and Tolkien and the rest of the Inklings it would just be another Oxford pub.

What I do disagree with you on is it will diminish when things are destroyed. You can have a loved toy from childhood and it is kept meticulous into your adult years. An accident happens and a part of it is wrecked. You feel some pain and sorrow at something you love being wrecked. It is not completely gone as you still have the toy but there is a little something lost in its new ruined state. If the Eagle and Child were to go from this:
The_Eagle_and_Child.jpg

To this:

bd67252f-227c-4992-afd3-c742df2fc8c7.jpg

I would say we have lost something in the name of modernism. If I could ascribe a soul to a building I would say it is lost in the modern look which is essentially a clone of every other modern building. Yes there is a great deal of money to be made in all that you mentioned and that is what is ruining everything it touches. I am no communist but I despise capitalism for the mere fact that anything good will eventually be commodified to make money which in turn destroys it. During covid John Krasinski (Jim from The Office US) had a YouTube show, think it was just called Good News, or something like that. All it was was reports of good news. Simple and heart warming. A studio wanted to capitalize on it and bought it for a large sum of money. It quickly withered and died. I strongly believe in preserving what we can, not to be museums or tourist attractions but to simply be places one can go and feel truth, beauty and goodness. The pub itself is not the important part, what you do in the pub is the thing that is wonderful, the building just facilitates. Now I am a bit hypocritical here as I visited The Eagle and Child when was I was back packing across Europe, but I was so wonderfully surprised that the pub was just a pub and I could sit and have a pint and give thought to the words those walls have heard that I wish I could have and also focus on the beauty that has come from those authors who met there regularly. It was contemplative. And it reminded me of the pubs or taverns that have long gone from where I live in Canada, only to be replaced with chain restaurants. England still has the local pub, a place that is not a chain restaurant or franchise, that is fast disappearing in Canada and with that there is replaced monstrosities that are purely geared to get as much money out of you as possible. If only there was a better way!
 
I know the reference is only tangental, but I'm reminded of a quote from the novel 1984 when, having rid the world of conflicting opinions and history, "there is only the eternal now, in which the party is always right." When we lose respect for our history, we lose respect for our foundation.
 
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