Oxford:
A historic pub in the centre of Oxford that has served students, scholars and literary greats for more than 450 years is to shut down, a cultural casualty of the COVID pandemic.
The Lamb and Flag, as soon as frequented by the likes of “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien and his pal C.S. Lewis, who wrote “The Chronicles of Narnia”, has suffered a disastrous loss of revenues considering that the begin of the pandemic.
The pub initial opened in 1566 and was moved to its present place on St Giles, a broad thoroughfare in the city centre, in 1613. It is owned by St John’s College, 1 of 45 colleges and private halls that make up the University of Oxford.
“The Lamb and Flag, like many other businesses in the hospitality industry, has been hard hit by the pandemic,” stated Steve Elston, deputy bursar of St John’s, in a statement announcing the pub would close on January 31.
“The trading figures of the last 12 months have meant that the pub is not currently financially viable.”
England was in lockdown for most of March, April, May and June final year, then once again in November, and has been in its third national lockdown considering that January 5. University life has been severely disrupted even outdoors of official lockdowns.
Dave Richardson of the Oxford branch of the Campaign for Real Ale stated the Lamb and Flag was 1 of the city’s most classic pubs and it would be a tragedy to see it disappear.
“It has no TV, it has no jukebox, it has no music. It’s a place where people come to talk to each other, to enjoy the traditional, historic surroundings. Generations of people have done that, students, townspeople, people from afar,” he stated.
Named following symbols traditionally linked with St John the Baptist, the Lamb and Flag is rumoured to have hosted the terrific writer Thomas Hardy, who set his dark novel “Jude the Obscure” partly in a fictionalised Oxford known as Christminster.
Since 1997, St John’s College has utilised earnings generated by the pub to fund scholarships for graduate students. It stated these getting the scholarships would not be impacted by the pub’s closure, and it would straight fund future scholarships.
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