A public drop-in event is taking place today to give businesses and residents an opportunity to view the plans to refurbish and reopen the Eagle and Child pub.

The pub, which shut in 2020, was bought last October by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) established in Los Angeles by billionaire Larry Ellison.

The famous watering hole formerly owned by St John's College was frequented by The Inklings, a writers' group including fantasy authors JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, and has high cultural significance as well as being a popular tourist destination.

The roof is leaky and there is water damage to ceilings, said EIT (Image: EIT) EIT said the event will allow the public to learn how they will "honour the pub's cultural legacy and restore the public space back to the community".

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The pub has not been used since March 2020 when the pandemic hit. EIT has recently lodged an early works planning application and listed building consent application with Oxford City Council.

It includes work to protect the building, including repairing and restoring existing windows and cleaning original stonework to prevent it from deteriorating.

It said: "EIT is committed to carrying out sensitive repairs that allows the heritage values of these important Oxford buildings to be celebrated, and once again reopened for residents, tourists and the wider community to enjoy."

Scaffolding has recently gone up outside to protect it from further decline.

According to EIT, the pub has a very leaky roof with water damage to ceilings and surrounding buildings are also in an “extremely poor” state.

In 2019 Oxford City Council granted a previous owner consent for demolition of part of the ground floor and first floor rear extensions, and converting Greens café next door into a hotel reception area and rooms.

The upper floors would also be accommodation, with six en-suite bedrooms in total, but the downstairs pub area would remain and the frontage would remain largely unaltered.

The St Giles barber shop next door would also remain.

At the back there would be a new extension enclosing the open courtyard to provide a covered open plan seating area for serving food with a new entrance off Wellington Place through the boundary wall.

Artist's impression boards presented at the planning meeting (Image: EIT) The side passage in Wellington Place was to be landscaped to retain the yew tree and plant one new tree.

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Before being approved by Oxford City Council's west area planning committee, the application had been called in by Cllrs Hollingsworth, Tanner, Fry, Turner and Rowley because of "concerns about the impact on the historic buildings and streetscape in St Giles, and the potential impact on trees in the adjoining street at Wellington Place".

Oxford residents and businesses are welcome to view EIT's plans to refurbish and reopen the pub at a drop-in event at The Garden Quad Reception Room, St John's College, Oxford OX1 3JP, between 2pm and 7.30pm on Thursday November 21.