Huit addresses, eight books: the map of Lewis's work

• Each step combines a real place with a Lewis book.
• From Little Lea (Boxen) to the Kilns (Narnia), passing through the front lines of 1918.
• Belfast, Oxford, Cambridge, but also northern France and London.
• Practical tips: guided tours, booking at the Kilns, public places.

Rather than a simple visit guide, here is a journey in eight places, each with the book you should have in your pocket.

1. Little Lea, Belfast → The Magician's Nephew

The large house where the family moved in 1905 still stands on Circular Road, in east Belfast. It is a private property: you can only view it from the street. In the attic, Jack and Warnie invented Boxen, their animal kingdom. It was also where the family wardrobe stood, carved by their grandfather, now preserved at the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton, near Chicago. Lewis's birthplace, Dundela Villas, was demolished; St Mark's Church in Dundela, where Lewis was baptized and where his maternal grandfather was pastor, has a stained glass window donated by the two brothers in memory of their parents.

2. Great Bookham, Surrey → The Last Battle

From 1914 to 1917, Lewis lived in this village with his tutor William Kirkpatrick, "The Great Knock." These were happy years of his adolescence, affectionately recounted in his autobiography. There is nothing particular to visit here, but it is where he learned to reason, and perhaps where the name Professor Kirke originated.

3. Mont-Bernanchon, Pas-de-Calais → Spirits in Bondage

On April 15, 1918, a shell wounded the young sub-lieutenant near this village in northern France. His first book, a collection of poems published in 1919, contains pieces written at the front, including French Nocturne. See "Lewis in France: war, translations, readers."

4. Magdalen College and Addison's Walk, Oxford → The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Lewis taught at Magdalen College from 1925 to 1954; his rooms were in New Building, facing the deer park. You can visit the college (paid entry) and walk along Addison's Walk, the path along the River Cherwell, where in September 1931 the decisive conversation with Tolkien and Dyson took place. A plaque bears a poem by Lewis. It was within these walls that he wrote his great book on courtly love.

5. The Eagle and Child, Oxford → The Silver Chair

The pub on St Giles, nicknamed "The Bird and Baby," where the Inklings met on Tuesday mornings. It closed in 2020 and has been announced for reopening several times: check before you go. Across the street, The Lamb and Flag, where the group met in the later years. Which book to bring? The Horse and His Boy, born from a bet with Tolkien.

6. St Mary the Virgin, Oxford → Prince Caspian

In the university church on High Street, Lewis delivered in 1941 his most famous sermon to an audience of students and soldiers. His first college, University College, is nearby.

7. The Kilns and Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry → The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The house Lewis bought in 1930 with Warnie and Mrs Moore, east of Oxford. He lived there until his death and wrote all seven Chronicles there. Restored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation, it serves as a study center and is open to visitors by appointment. The neighboring wooded area, with its pond, has become the C.S. Lewis Nature Reserve. A few streets away, Holy Trinity Church, which Lewis attended: he is buried there with Warnie, under the inscription "Men must endure their going hence," taken from King Lear. A Narnian stained glass window depicts Aslan, Mr Tumnus, Reepicheep, and the White Witch.

8. Magdalene College, Cambridge → Surprised by Joy

Lewis taught at Cambridge from 1954 to 1963; he gave his inaugural lecture on "The Discarded Image" and prepared courses that became the book of the same name. His rooms overlooked the first court; a plaque commemorates his time there.

And a ninth address, to finish

In London, since November 22, 2013, a stone inscribed with his name has been placed in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey, bearing a quote from one of his essays: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." And further away, Greece, where he traveled in 1960 with Joy.

Before you leave

Several agencies and associations offer guided "Lewis and Tolkien" walks in Oxford, and audio-guided tours exist for Belfast. Belfast also celebrates Lewis annually with a festival in November. For The Kilns, book in advance. For all private places, like Little Lea, stay on the public path.

## See also - [Lewis in French: the war, translations, readers]( - [Boxen]( - [Surprised by Joy]( - [The Pilgrim's Regress]( - [The Allegory of Love]( - [Out of the Silent Planet]( - [Perelandra]( - [That Hideous Strength]( - [The Chronicles of Narnia]( - [The Chronicles of Narnia in the world: languages and translations]( - [The Medieval Literary Background of Narnia]( - [The Inklings: A Literary Club]( - [The Last of the Dinosaurs: A Medievalist at Oxford and Cambridge, and What Narnia Owes to Its Library](