Campaign to Buy Tolkien’s House Fails
Project Northmoor, a fundraising campaign with the goal of buying J.R.R. Tolkien’s Oxford house and turning it into a literary center, failed to raise the £4.5 million needed to purchase and renovate the house. As of February 4, 2021, it had raised just 17% of its goal. However, the organizers announced that “we have been offered an alternative home for the first literary centre dedicated to Tolkien in a very suitable venue in the heart of Oxford that fits our needs perfectly for in person courses and a base for tours visiting the locations that inspired Tolkien.”
The house on 20 Northmoor Road was Tolkien’s home from 1930-1947 while he was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University and where he wrote The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings. The campaign was started by author Julia Golding and gained the support of The Lord of the Rings actors Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, and John Rhys-Davies.
The Tolkien Society refused to support the project, noting that “the property itself is a listed building in a conservation area – with a blue plaque proudly showing its connection to Tolkien – meaning the property is well protected under the law and not in need of rescue.”
For more information, see the Guardian article.
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