The Eagle & Child, Oxford

10:15 on a sunday night and a choice of this or the Lamb and Flag over the road. Both shut bang on 10:30. You can feel the history of this place dripping off the walls but the beer quality was dreadful. Old Hooky had to be sent back - dull, cloudy and rank. It was changed with minimal fuss (held to light, which failed to penetrate) and swapped for a brighter oxford gold. Visit blogged at http://bit.ly/2tFIpRz

Visited only once back in late 1993 and now a PuG crawl return after nearly a quarter of a century. Little has changed - perhaps a wash and brush here and there - but since the double whammy of increased interest in both drinking/smoking buddies J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis this pub is now, unsurprisingly, somewhat hobbit-forming, attracting the massed hoards from all corners of the planet, delivered to the [wardrobe?]door by the coachload. Time to avoid the masses - ideally evening onwards - this pub is quirky and pleasant enough, bordering on interesting. Nothing special on the ale front (I can't remember what I had). Worth a trip just to say you've been, but barely worthy of a detour.

As with the Lamb and Flag over the road, this historic pub is owned by the nearby St John's College and has some impressive literary credentials. The pub has a long, narrow interior, although it seems to lose character the further back you go. You enter into a corridor with a couple of very cosy snugs on either side, each with enough room for a couple of tables. A little further on, through an open doorway, the servery emerges on the right hand side in a compact bar area with minimal furnishing to avoid congestion at what can become a busy area in peak times. This area gives way to the most famous part of the pub - the Rabbit Room - formerly a private lounge in which the likes of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis would regularly meet and where Lewis first distributed his proofs for 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe'. Sadly, the room was opened out in the early 1960's to allow for an extension to be built to the rear, at which point the aspiring authors defected to the Lamb and Flag. Nowadays the room is a big pull for tourists who can admire a few bits of memorabilia related to the 'Inklings', which are dotted around the walls. There are a couple of tables in the room and a nice fireplace on the end wall, but getting a seat is tricky and most punters end up moving through to the stone floored corridor running to the back of the pub which has tables and chairs down one side and a drinking ledge along the opposite wall, before emerging into a modern, double gabled conservatory, decorated with prints from local artists, an old street plan of Oxford and a collection of spirit bottles. A door at the far end had a sign on it saying 'Narnia', but having never been a fan of those books, I didn't bother to see where it led. St John's now lease the pub to the Nicholson's chain, which at least ensures a decent beer range is likely. The small bar only has room for four handpulls and these were dispensing Fullers London Pride, Nicholson's Pale Ale, Brakspear Oxford Gold and Orkney Dark Island. I tried the latter which was very enjoyable and went down well with the seafood platter, which we ordered with a bit of trepidation, although it turned out to be excellent. I think I prefer the Lamb and Flag over this place, but this is still an interesting pub that Nicholson's seem to be doing a good job with. Probably best avoided during peak tourist season, but there weren't too many around on my rainy February visit, allowing us a good look around one of the city's most famous pubs.