Tech billionaire Larry Ellison has stepped in to revive the Eagle and Child, the Oxford pub famous as the preferred watering-hole of J.R.R. Tolkein, creator of The Lord of the Rings.

The 17th-century pub has been closed since the Covid shutdown of 2020, and was reportedly being lined up for conversion into a hotel until its acquisition by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) – a medical research facility focusing on cancer – which said it would “refurbish and reopen the iconic venue”.

The institute said: “EIT is delighted – through the acquisition of this beloved space and the construction of our new Oxford campus – to be able to put the city at the heart of our mission to help solve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. EIT will maintain the Eagle and Child’s use as a public house, honouring its historic and cultural legacy.” 

Tolkein, an Oxford don, met up with a group of friends including C.S. Lewis every week at the Eagle and Child in St Giles’ for almost 30 years from the early 1930s, although the back room which they used for their lunches disappeared in a modernisation in 1962.

Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit at the centre of Tolkein’s fantasy, is famously fond of ale – although his world-view is distinctly low-tech. Ellison started out as a computer programmer, but he called his company Oracle – a possible hint of his interest in the extra-digital realm.