Lamb & Flag Reopens
The Lamb & Flag finally reopened on 6 October 2022.
Dave Norwood (1988 Modern History), writes:
My first ever pint in Oxford was during Freshers’ Week, at a pub not far from the College. We slipped out of the back gates, and walked along an atmospheric passage into a lively hostelry where the older history students seemed determined to buy us lots of beer. Fine by me. I tried to chat up some of the girls in the group. This failed miserably but a lifelong love affair did begin that night…
That was October 1988. In January 2021, my Keble friend Cathy (née Morgan, now Hargreaves) (1988 Music) sent me a BBC article saying that COVID-19 had caused the Lamb & Flag to close permanently. This seemed impossible. Our beloved pub had been serving beer to undergraduates like us since 1566. This was where Tolkien and CS Lewis argued about hobbits and lions. Not only were we losing the past, it felt like a betrayal of the future. Something had to be done.
Some familiar faces at the reopening…
As usual, Keble led the charge. Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter (1971 Maths, Honorary Fellow) tweeted, “Very sad about this news, I learned much of my maths in that pub.” This inspired us to greater efforts and an idea slowly took shape to set up a Community Interest Company (CIC). The Inklings Group CIC would ensure that the Lamb & Flag reopened…and would stay open for a thousand years. Happily, St John’s College also shared this vision and worked with us to save the pub.
The happiest moment was seeing this photo from the opening night…could have been me 34 years ago
After blood, sweat, tears…and more tears, the Lamb & Flag finally reopened on 6 October 2022. There are now more than 300 Inklings, with many Keblites amongst us. For me personally, the happiest moment was seeing this photo from the opening night…could have been me 34 years ago.
