What has happened to the eagle and child?

The watering hole for Tolkien and cs lewis?
#TimWilson #Philosophy #Politics #oxford #CSLewis #JRRTolkein #Eagleandchild #stgiles
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[@leplessis8179]

Blame St John's - the pub has never ben the same since Morse (aka Dexter) retired!

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

Nooooooo! I love drinking in there, you can feel the ghosts.

[@thomasbradley2225]

Nice chapter in the chronicles of Timothy, Timothy. Are you in Oxford? Where is Inspector Endeavor Morse, ask him for a pub recommendation. Or at least where a bag of fish and chips can be grabbed on the fly with a cool bottle of Miller beer.

[@twlufc]

Serco will probably purchase that, if they already haven't already..

[@stevensteptoe682]

That's sad. Thirty years ago I worked in the building over your left shoulder when it was occupied by a firm of accountants. My desk was on the top floor at that gable end, and sO used to spend most of Friday afternoons gazing out of the window and looking longingly into the conservatory at the back of the pub, in anticipation of five PM creeping around and a pint before I set off on my walk home.

[@stevensteptoe682]

At that time it was owned by a chap with one leg, who had worked as Peter Ustinov's stunt double in The Last Remake Of Beau Geste. You crossed that man at your peril.

[@johnncats8242]

Apparently this pub was referred to by the doctors at the Radcliffe Infirmary, which used to be Oxford's main hospital and was only a few hundred yards away, as the "Fowl and Foetus".

[@guidopvf6792]

Finally I know who you are: you are Tom Bombadil. And you chanced your name from Tom to Tim.

[@spindrifter7519]

Probably owned by a pub co and waiting for their next new victim to lose their life savings

[@vomgrady]

They were renovating it a few years ago but then had some funding issues and the project stalled. No update as yet. Try the Lamb and Flag across the road. They will give a bit more info.

[@Barbarapape]

This is all too common these days. Where i live close to Chester only one pub remains open, in Chester the place is like a gost town, with most of the shops closed, and some of the pubs leaving only the expensive places serving food that i won't eat. You now have to walk a bit further to find a good pub serving meals at sensible prices.

[@bettyswallocks6411]

This, I am afraid, is a symptom of The Great Dying of British pubs, backbone of British culture. While I am in Vienna, friends tell me that the future of the Bird & Bastard is up in the air. It might become student accommodation, or it might remain a pub, we just don’t know yet. The same is apparently true of the Lamb & Flag on the other side of St Giles. I hope they both remain open. Pubs in the UK have had a very hard time of tory misrule on top of a lot of other social change. Consider Jericho, which used to be a very industrial area. Lucy’s canalside Eagle Foundry is now apartments - as is a large part of the old Morrells brewery. Most of the pubs in Jericho have closed, with just a few remaining. A friend lives in Witney. The walk from his house into the town centre used to include 5 pubs on the one road, where there are now none. The Oxfordshire village that I grew up in had two pubs, now none. The same 1000+ y.o. village had hop gardens for centuries, now none. This has been ongoing ever since the tories 1980s reforms of the brewing and pub industries. The changes were supposed to foster competition and creativity, instead in resulted in buyouts and mergers and asset-stripping and closures. The UK has lost many breweries and many, many pubs because of that, but the death nell of many more pubs has been the last three years or so since brexit, the pandemic and the thoroughly mis-managed energy crisis. From what I hear, the UK will lose more pubs from July last year to June this year than over the entirety of the last 13 years of the tory boot. there are many other factors, including brexit (almost all of the UK’s hops are now imported) I am sure much of this will please the tory Nasti Party, as they won’t like the idea of working-class people getting together over a few inhibition-loosening pints and discussing the politics of the day. Long live beer, long live the pub.🍻🍻🍻

[@neiloneil3854]

All that may be true,but the same is happening here in Ireland and it can be traced back to smoking ban

[@mrpaulangryhutchison249]

​@@neiloneil3854 yep the worst thing they did was ban smoking in pub's they should of had one's for smokers and one for none smoking But then again it's a part of our history not there's you know those who don't drink ale and smoke and so on

[@mrpaulangryhutchison249]

Nothing to do with the Tory's. Blair's labour government followed like sheep by order of the high power that be and banned smoking in the workplace and public building for his masters

[@bettyswallocks6411]

@@neiloneil3854 No small part of it, I believe, is the shift in working culture over the last 50 years. In Oxford, certainly, most of the pubs that have closed have been ‘working mens’ pubs, but very few of us, these days, work in the fields or a factory. The pubs used to be near the factories and the workers also lived nearby - within walking distance. These days, far more of us drive to work, which precludes an after-work pint for many of us.

[@johne1956]

I have no inkling.

[@enlightenme8524]

The building is owned by St John’s college I think. There were extensive talks about it reopening. I think it’s continued closure since covid is due to disagreements about what to do with it. There had been talk of renovating it, turning it into a boutique hotel with others wanting to retain it as was. I a coop community pub was talking about taking it over also. Oxford based and this is just what I have heard and read locally.

[@andrewcox2810]

Sorry to hear this,it would seem many an old pub will soon be lost if we don’t start getting back out for a good old chin wag and a place to escape to from the other half .Went there just before the lockdown,very atmospheric,have yet to vist his grave which is not to far away.

[@georgemulcahy4515]

Absolute pleasure to meet you earlier on queen st.

[@ProfessorTimWilson]

It was a delight. Thank you so much

[@davidmcintyre998]

Pubs have been dying for at least the last forty five years a victim of Westminsters if its popular tax it policy (fine if the money is well used ) and people do not socialise like they once did apart from on Coronation Street but i doubt the owner of the factory would ever drink with his employees not in dear old Blighty.

[@commentarytalk1446]

You have to wonder if that's a deliberate social engineering ploy by the Establishment to stop people connecting physically and boost control via isolation and only able to connect digitally (more prone to mass conditioning)? One truly wonders, current stat is 33% of a pint's cost is tax. Says a lot about day-light robbery in the UK of the people by the system. Throw in the onerous regulations eg health and safety standards, food hygiene and more on top just to run a small business eg pub... that's the insanity of modern life wrought.

[@YorkistRaven]

I sincerely hope the Bird and Baby is flying again soon. In 1985 I visited and lifted a pint to the memory of dear J.R.R.T. 🍺💜

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

I used to do Orc at The Tolkien Society meetings, that was an absolute gas! Tripping our minds out, being chased by gentlemen in weird titfers, through the colleges. Playing Orcses.

[@richiedoop2529]

As a fan of Tolkien and Lewis this sad news. How many great ideas where debated and captured in that building?.

[@jimthorne304]

I thought Youngs were going to take it on.

[@Disflop]

My husbands local when he was a history student at Keble many,many moons ago!

[@stefanpietrzyk8079]

Seems like when it comes to pubs people have changed their hobbits , Gollum are the times when customers were Legolas in the same land Lords tavern . They now prefer to drink with a spoon. ?

[@richardthompson6366]

Everything is broken.

[@matbritton6816]

Has everyone forgotten how to fix stuff?

[@susanb4816]

Somebody tell steven colbert he would def buy it

[@miatarot-virgo8623]

Thank you Tim and God Bless to you all 👍👍👍👓👓👓🌼.

[@rachelg3274]

Oh, no! I had been watching another completely different video and the man said, “what had been up until recently the Eagle and Child” and I was worried it would be lost for good! I see on this video it is just temporarily closed. I am an American, but I lived in Oxford for a bit, and I adore this pub and its rich history. I don’t mind if the Brewhouse became the Red Lion, but Oxford, please, don’t let anything happen to The Eagle and Child, The Turf Tavern, The White Horse, or The King’s Arms. Reopen the pub. You can refurbish a bit, but please keep its vibe. Don’t take away its character. I invite you to come visit me at a suburban American strip mall, if you don’t understand my meaning. Trust me. Do the right thing.

[@guidopvf6792]

Tolkien, is as close as religion will get to me. I am possitively jealous that you can go and have a cup of tea in his pub. Sorry that it is closed, and I promise you, only for now. Also liked you’re documentary about carolus boromeus. Wish a lot of people could feel the joy of reading books, of reading, but, in politics they even don’t bother to read the reports of their staff. What’s the point in reading? Since I am watching your youtube channel, you know exactly what I mean.

[@charleslyall5857]

A shame if it’s closed. A lot of history if it had the likes of Tolkien and C.S Lewis as it’s regulars.

[@matbritton6816]

You would make such a great landlord! It just needs good marketing. You are an attraction yourself! Tolkien themed menu and activity colouring-in placemats for the kiddies, souvenir range, job's a good'n! Staff could dress as Tolkien characters. Free drink for customers dressed in character. You would be Gandalf!! 😯O.M.G.! This has got to happen!!!

[@BrokenHill56]

My wife loved lunching there with her mother.

[@mossychops]

Devereux Chambers and Sir Kier Starmer Partygate? The same reason the Black Cap closed?

[@mossychops]

Wantage: Eye for an Eye? A coin of Alfred (Fabianism)

[@mossychops]

Purple Hair and the Zionist Paedophile Pink Mafia?

[@chrismccartney8668]

Perhaps name offends some obscure sect ??

[@stoptheworldiwannagetoff4780]

Here's a theory Tim. Going to the pub is a large part of British culture. If you invite lots and lots of people to live in your country and lots and lots of people leave because of it, there are less people of the 'indigenous culture' to 'go to the pub,' thus revenues fall and hard times follow. Silly people like you, who can't work this out, facilitate this.....That said, it may be closed to be refurbished? :)

[@kinsutgiikigai]

Use it as a community centre where all people of different race religions can meet and learn from each other

[@Osk.S57]

Pubs are community centres.

[@kinsutgiikigai]

@@Osk.S57 not for everyone

[@kinsutgiikigai]

@@Osk.S57 parents won't bring there children to the pub what they going to learn there drunks moaning about immigrants stealing there jobs because there to lazy