Tolkien's Oxford Residences

50 St. John St.

50 St. John Street was Tolkien's first post-baccalaureate Oxford address, and he lived here while he was on staff at the Oxford English Dictionary, or New English Dictionary, after being repeatedly deemed unfit for military service due to bouts of trench fever and other illness. He lived there from 1917 to 1919, when he and Edith decided they could afford to move into a small house. The building where Tolkien lived has been torn down, but a new one took its place and there is today a 50 St. John Street, though it has shifted a little down the road from the location of the original.

20 and 22 Northmoor Road

In 1925, J.R.R. Tolkien applied for the position of Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and in January of 1926, his family moved down from Leeds to join him. When the Tolkien family first moved to Oxford, they lived at 22 Northmoor Road; but Ronald had bought it without the approval of Edith, and she thought it was too small. In 1930, shortly after the birth of Priscilla, the Tolkiens moved next door to the larger 20 Northmoor house and lived there until their move to Manor Road in 1947. During his time at 20 Northmoor, Tolkien began writing The Hobbit, worked as a lecturer, tutor, and mentor to students such as Alan Bliss and W.H. Auden, and took over the famous literary group The Inklings in tandem with C.S. Lewis.

3 Manor Road

As Tolkien's children began to grow up and leave the house, Northmoor became too large and expensive a residence for the family to maintain, and Ronald, Edith, and Priscilla moved into this house on Manor Road. Very quickly, however, they decided it was far too cramped and moved to 76 Sandfield Road in 1953.

76 Sandfield Road

As soon as this property became available, the Tolkiens moved into 76 Sandfield Road, a home about the same distance from the center of Oxford as the Northmoor house. Ronald and Edith lived here from 1953 to 1968, and during this time Tolkien and his works rocketed to fame. During our time in Oxford, the house was for sale (for a mere 1.2 million pounds).

21 Merton St.

This apartment was the last place Tolkien lived; he moved here from Bournemouth after Edith's death in March of 1972 and stayed nearly a year and a half, until his death in September of 1973. It was given to him by Merton College, which made the author a resident honorary Fellow in appreciation for all his scholarly work and service to Oxford.

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