Lewis Close, The Kilns - Oxford Heritage Asset Register Nominations List

Location

Location of The Kilns on Google Maps

What is it?

• a building or group of buildings

The Kilns is a Bungalow with an added upper storey located on what is now Lewis Close in Headington Quarry. Built on the site of a former brickworks in 1922, whose large brick kilns gave the bungalow its name, the dwelling was then set back from Kiln Lane and backed onto an eight-acre garden. The garden, now the C. S. Lewis Nature Reserve, is characterised by a large lake which fills a former claypit connected to the brickworks.

The property was advertised as being offered for sale at public auction in 1927 in The Times, and again in 1928. The historic and cultural significance of the building does not originate until the sale of the bungalow in 1930 to Clive Staples Lewis, British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian. Lewis, accompanied by his brother Warnie, after viewing it for the first time described the property as ’stuff dreams are made of’ and promptly purchased the house under the name of Mrs J. K. Moore, the mother of his friend and comrade who died during the First World War whom he had pledged to care for.

Lewis resided at The Kilns with his brother Warnie, Janie Moore and her daughter, and Alice Moore, a non-related friend of Janie’s from Ireland, until his death in 1963. The house and its surrounding gardens are attributed with inspiring much of Lewis’s literature, most famously the Chronicles of Narnia which began their life as tales told to children hosted by Lewis during evacuation from London in 1939.

After Lewis’s demise in 1963, development of the land surrounding The Kilns accelerated, with the Lewis Close cul-de-sac built in 1968 on land attached to Lewis’s house and subsequently destroying the two brick kilns, final vestiges of the former brickworks. Much of the Garden to the south of the property was gifted to what is now the Wildlife Trust in an effort to ensure its preservation, but attempts to list the bungalow itself have been in vain, with no formal protection as a heritage asset. The success of this application would help ensure the protection of The Kilns, and its important historic and cultural significance felt on both a local and international scale through its connection as C. S. Lewis’ home.

Why is it interesting?

• Historic interest – a well documented association with a person, event, episode of history, or local industry
• Architectural interest – an example of an architectural style, a building of particular use, a technique of building, or use of materials

The building has an extremely well documented connection with Clive Staples Lewis, British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian. The building is currently under the ownership of the C. S. Lewis Foundation, and has been restored to its former 1930’s appearance for use as a site of cultural pilgrimage and Christian study centre.

Why is it locally valued?

• Association: It connects us to people and events that shaped the identity or character of the area
• Communal: It is important to the identity, cohesion, spiritual life or memory of all or part of the community

The building is largely valued due to its association with C. S. Lewis, and the connection between the surrounding landscape and his literature. Lewis was a prominent character within the area during his time at The Kilns, and frequented the local Anglican church, where he is buried alongside his brother Warnie. This has contributed to the communal value of The Kilns, contributing to the surrounding areas historic identity.

What makes its local significance special?

• Group value
• Oxford’s identity

A Don of Magdalen College, Lewis’s roots are deeply intwined with the City of Oxford and many contemporary students study literature written by him. The presence of the house in which these great literary feats were written is a monument to Lewis as an author, but also as a local figure, whose drew inspiration for many of his works from the landscape surrounding the bungalow in Headington Quarry.