Continue along the High until you reach the Eastgate Hotel, which is on the corner of Merton Street. Since Tolkien was a Fellow of Merton College and Lewis of Magdalen College, the Eastgate was a convenient place for them to meet.

 

C.S. Lewis in a letter to his brother, November 1939:
‘On Thursday we had a meeting of the Inklings — you and Coghill both absent unfortunately. We dined at the Eastgate. I have never in my life seen Dyson so exuberant — “A roaring cataract of nonsense.”’

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The Eastgate Hotel, a Georgian inn dating back to the 17th century, was one of the Inklings’ favourite wartime gathering spots. During the Second World War, the familiar Eagle and Child pub suffered beer shortages and bomb damage, so the group often convened here instead.

In letters, Lewis describes lively dinners filled with laughter, debate, and the warmth of intellectual friendship — what he famously called “the matrix of mutual affections.

Here, over hearty meals and mugs of ale, Lewis, Tolkien, Charles Williams, and others read drafts of their works, exchanged criticism, and encouraged one another through the uncertainty of the war years.

The Eastgate remains a working hotel and restaurant today, and stepping inside its bar offers a tangible sense of continuity — the echo of conversation still alive beneath the low timber beams.

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