Where did C.S. Lewis and the Inklings commonly meet in Oxford?

C.S. Lewis and the Inklings commonly met at The Eagle and Child in Oxford.

The Eagle and Child is a historic pub on St Giles’ Street, Oxford. The Inklings, an informal group of writers and scholars, met there regularly from the 1930s into the 1940s. The group included Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield among others.

The meetings were social as well as literary. Members read aloud from works in progress, discussed language and ideas, and offered criticism. Lewis’s Narnia stories and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings are often associated with the group because both authors developed major works during this period, although the Inklings were not an official club with a fixed membership list.

The pub was nicknamed the “Bird and Baby,” a playful shortening of its name. The Lamb and Flag, another Oxford pub across the street, is sometimes named in accounts of literary Oxford, but it was not the venue most strongly associated with the Inklings. The Eagle and Child’s literary connection has made it a destination for readers of Lewis and Tolkien.