Visit Oxford, and C S Lewis related places such as the Kilns with the help of www.visitthekilns.com Get a taste of what 'A Guide to the C. S. Lewis Tour in Oxford' is all about. Brief details of the tour follow, but to book a tour please contact me at Ronbrind@rbrind.fsnet.co.uk or Ron@visitthekilns.com
So we start at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford designed by William Wilkinson and built in 1864. The Randolph hotel is Oxfords five star premier hotel associated with many famous VIPs from all over the world. Why not visit the recently renamed Morse Bar (formerly Chapters bar) situated just inside the hotel's lobby to the left as you approach the hotel reception. It is well worth a visit and you may even bump into Colin Dexter who wrote the Inspector Morse novels. It was in the Randolph hotel that some of the filming for 'Shadowlands' took place and where C. S. Lewis received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Laval University, Quebec in 1952.
To securely book the Randolph Hotel online, or other hotel click on the following links:
http://www.picturesofengland.com/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/Macdonald_Randolph_Hotel
http://www.picturesofengland.com/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/Malmaison_Oxford
http://www.picturesofengland.com/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/Royal_Oxford_Hotel all are close to the start of the C S Lewis Tour in Beaumont Street, Oxford.
Opposite the Randolph hotel is the Ashmolean Museum designed by architect C. R. Cockerell, Britain’s oldest public museum! It is able to boast some of the finest collections in the world but if you decide to visit leave yourself plenty of time to soak up the fabulous history contained within. The Ashmolean Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am-5pm, Sunday 2pm-5pm and on Bank Holiday Mondays from 2pm-5pm.
Martyrs Memorial was completed in 1843 and stands at the southern end of St. Giles. It was erected in memory of the three protestant bishops Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer who were burnt at the stake at the western end of Broad Street, Oxford. Today in Broad Street an iron cross in the middle of the road, at road level in fact, indicates the actual site of the ditch at the time outside Oxford's north gate where the deed took place. During the years 1555/6 our Queen Mary was looking towards Rome and Catholicism. Martyr's Memorial was designed by architect Sir George Gilbert Scott who also designed Exeter College (founded 1405) Oxford, and Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford where brothers Clive Staples Lewis and Warren Hamilton Lewis are buried in the Churchyard.
St Johns College is reputed to be Oxfords wealthiest College, financially that is. It is said to own land between Oxford and Cambridge which is over eighty miles away and that it is possible to walk from St Johns College Oxford, to St Johns College Cambridge without actually stepping off of land that it owns! Wealthy London merchant Sir Thomas White founded St Johns College in 1555. Recent graduates include the novelists and poets A. E. Housman, Robert Graves, Kingsley Amis, Philip Larkin, John Wain and Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Eagle and Child public house otherwise known locally as the 'Bird and Baby' and former watering hole of the group of nineteen men referred to as the Inklings can be found in St. Giles, Oxford not far away from the Registry Office where Jack married Joy in April 1956. The Eagle and Child has been trading as a pub since 1650 and was named after the Earl of Derby.
During the years 1642-1646 Oxford was the capital of Royalist England with Charles I and his Queen Henrietta Maria residing at Christ Church and Merton College respectively. During the Civil War the Eagle and Child and the adjacent buildings were used as the pay house for Royalist soldiers of Charles I. The Eagle and Child was purchased by St Johns College, Oxford during 2005 for something in the region of £1.2 million but still there is no shrine to C. S. Lewis in Oxford!
However, a visit to the Eagle and Child is not to be missed! Why not enjoy your lunch sitting in the area, no bigger than say 9 feet by 7 feet known as the 'Rabbit Room'. (As you face the bar look over your left shoulder to read ‘Rabbit Room’ on a small plaque). This is where the Inklings would gather on a Tuesday morning discussing each others written works. During the late 1930's early 1940's the ‘Rabbit Room’ was literally the rear of the pub, but it has been extended considerably since to allow for catering requirements! Why not record your visit to the Eagle and Child with a photograph inside the pub, sitting in one of the very seats that so many literary authors sat. It's a case of first come first served for the seating, the locals probably not even caring about who previously sat there anyway!
Keble College in Parks Road is where Jack met with Edward Courtenay Francis (Paddy) Moore. They became good friends and room mates and agreed to look after each others family in the event one or the other was killed in action during the so-called Great War, the First World War that is! In fact Paddy Moore was killed at the age of twenty years and buried in the field in Peronne, Southern France. So based on the agreement it was C. S. Lewis who was to look after Paddy’s mother Mrs Janie King-Moore and her daughter Maureen who later became Lady Dunbar of Hempriggs.
However, it didn’t work out that way because Mrs Moore purchased a house in Headington on the outskirts of Oxford, where in 1922 Jack went to live with her at the age of twenty four years. Mrs Moore was twenty six years Jack’s senior but Jack and Janie King-Moore were living together at that property for eight years before moving to the Kilns on Risinghurst Estate in Headington also. It has been suggested that there was a relationship between Jack and Mrs Moore. I personally think the suggestion of a relationship is credible based on the bedroom arrangements at the Kilns. When you see the Kilns you will notice two dormer windows at the rear of the property, I think they give us a real clue!
As you face the house from the rear, the left hand dormer window was Janie King-Moore’s bedroom and Jacks bedroom was to the right. However, the internal staircase only allowed access to Janie King-Moore’s bedroom, so for Jack to go to bed, get up during the night, get up in the morning he would have had to go through Janie King-Moore’s bedroom! Now my personal opinion is simply that no man on this earth would be given ‘ad hoc’ permission to walk through a ladies bedroom just as he wished, unless there was some sort of arrangement or relationship! Towards the end of Mrs Moore’s life the relationship soured, and she was very difficult with Jack. She refused to let him use her bedroom as a thoroughfare any longer! So what was Jack to do? As I mentioned earlier it was the only way into his bedroom! In fact Jack had a narrow doorway cut into the window on the gable end of the property, a staircase was installed, which is still there today, as is the door!! Now he had access to his bedroom again, but after the death of Mrs Moore in 1951 Jack used her bedroom as his study.
After Keble College, Rhodes House! An absolutely stunning building and of course it’s where the Rhodes Scholars come from. Cecil Rhodes established the 'Rhodes Trust' and intended it for the purpose of educating future leaders of the world. Cecil John Rhodes died in 1902.
Not far from Rhodes House during 1916, Jack lodged in a property in Mansfield Road. He was eighteen years of age, but how could he know that J. R. R. Tolkien was lodging in Holywell Street, just around the corner?
St Cross Church, an Anglican Church founded before the 13th Century and still in use today. The St Cross Churchyard is where you will find the graves of Inklings Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson. Also buried in the Churchyard is the author of 'The Wind in the Willows' Kenneth Grahame.
Official Sponsor of the C. S. Lewis Tour in Oxford.
Accommodation in England - At www.PicturesOfEngland.com you can find all the best places to stay including Historic Inns and B&B's to luxury 5 star City hotels. All the accommodation listed is available to book securely online with special internet-only discounted rates, some examples are listed above.
Not only will you get great deals, but you will be helping to support PicturesOfEngland.com the official sponsor of the C. S. Lewis Tour in Oxford by booking through them. You'll find accommodation availability on all of their towns and attractions pages. You can even submit photographs of your visit to the United Kingdom and the C. S. Lewis tour!
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