Lewis in Oxford

C. S. Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898, and came up to the University of Oxford in 1917 with a scholarship to University College. His undergraduate career was interrupted by war service in France, and he graduated with a double First in Greats (classical philosophy and history) in 1922, then a First in English in 1923. After a brief spell as a philosophy lecturer he was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College in 1925, as Tutor in English Language and Literature. He held this post until 1954, when he was elected Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

For nearly thirty years, he occupied rooms in the New Buildings of Magdalen College (built about 1740), overlooking both the deer park and Addison's Walk around Magdalen Meadow. After his conversion to Christianity in 1931, he regularly attended weekday services in the college chapel. He preached several times at the University  Church of St Mary the Virgin, and on Sundays, worshipped at his parish church, Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry.

Lewis’ home from his undergraduate days until the end of his life was the Kilns, an Edwardian house in Headington, on the outskirts of Oxford.

Tours of the Kilns can be arranged by contacting the C. S. Lewis Foundation.

Special Inklings Walking Tours of Oxford are also arranged weekly by Blackwell's Bookshop.