Honestly, if you’re expecting a grand, sprawling English estate with white marble statues and a gated driveway, you’re going to be pretty surprised by The Kilns. It’s tucked away in a suburban corner of Oxford called Risinghurst, and if you weren’t looking for it, you’d probably drive right past the place. It’s a modest, twelve-room brick house. Nothing flashy.
But this is where the magic actually happened.
Every single one of the Chronicles of Narnia books was written inside these walls. The ideas for The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity? They started here too. C.S. Lewis—or "Jack" to everyone who actually knew him—lived in this house for thirty-three years, and it wasn’t some quiet, ivory-tower existence. It was messy. It was loud. It was filled with unexpected houseguests, eccentric gardeners, and a lake that used to be a clay pit.
The Kilns: The House That Jack Built (With a Little Help)
Back in 1930, Jack was looking for a permanent home. He wasn't doing it alone, though. He pooled his money with his brother, Warnie, and Janie Moore. The backstory here is kinda heavy. Jack had made a pact with a buddy in the trenches of World War I, Paddy Moore: if one of them didn't make it back, the survivor would look after the other's family. Paddy died. Jack kept his word.
He basically adopted Janie Moore as his mother, and they lived together for decades. When they bought The Kilns, it was a bit of a wreck. The property sat on an old brickworks—hence the name—and it came with about eight acres of wild land, a tennis court, and a pond.
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Jack loved it. He wrote that he "never hoped for the like."
Life inside the house
Life at the house wasn't exactly a peaceful retreat for a scholar. Mrs. Moore was, by most accounts, pretty demanding. She’d have Jack out there chopping wood, running errands, or doing dishes right when he was in the middle of a chapter. Warnie, who was a retired Army Major, stayed in his own room upstairs, often retreating into his own world (and occasionally a bottle of gin) to escape the domestic chaos.
And then there was Fred Paxford.
He was the gardener at The Kilns for over thirty years. He was a classic glass-half-empty kind of guy—always predicting bad weather or a poor harvest. If that sounds familiar, it's because he was the direct inspiration for Puddleglum the Marsh-wiggle in The Silver Chair.
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What Really Happened with Joy Davidman
People love the "Shadowlands" version of Lewis's life, but the reality of his marriage to Joy Davidman at The Kilns was much more gritty and human. When Joy first showed up, the house was in a serious state of disrepair. It was damp, the roof leaked, and the garden was a jungle.
Joy was the one who actually saved the place.
She organized the first major renovation, fixing the plumbing and making the rooms livable again. Her three years living there with Jack, while she was battling cancer, were arguably the most transformative years of his life. They weren't just sitting around talking about theology; they were living a domestic life that Jack had never really experienced before.
He died in his bedroom at The Kilns on November 22, 1963. It was the same day JFK was assassinated, so the world hardly noticed at first.
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Visiting The Kilns in 2026: What You Need to Know
If you’re planning a trip to Oxford, you can’t just show up and knock on the door. It’s not a museum in the traditional sense. It’s actually a Study Centre owned by the C.S. Lewis Foundation, and they have scholars-in-residence living there year-round.
Pro tip: Bring cash. They don't do credit cards at the door. As of 2026, adult tickets are £20, and you absolutely have to book at least two weeks in advance.
- Email first: You have to reach out to the tour coordinator (thekilns@cslewis.org).
- Timing: Tours usually happen on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
- The Walk: It's about three miles from central Oxford. You can take a bus or a taxi, but if you want the full "Jack" experience, walk through Headington Quarry.
The house looks remarkably like it did in the 1940s. They’ve restored the original quarry tile floors and even reopened the nine fireplaces that had been sealed up over the years. You can see the desk where he wrote, and the "Common Room" where he’d sit with Warnie.
The Nature Reserve
Just behind the house is the C.S. Lewis Nature Reserve. This used to be part of the garden. The pond where Jack used to swim every morning (even in the winter!) is still there. It’s a flooded clay pit, and it's easy to see how the tangled woods and the "giant's marbles" (large rocks left from the brickworks) fed into the landscape of Narnia.
Actionable Steps for Your Pilgrimage
- Book Early: Don't wait until you're in Oxford. The tours are small—usually only a handful of people—and they fill up months in advance.
- Check the Parish: Visit Holy Trinity Church nearby. That’s where Jack and Warnie worshipped for 30 years. You can see the "Narnia Window" and Jack's grave in the churchyard.
- Wear Hiking Boots: The nature reserve paths can get incredibly muddy, especially in the typical English rain.
- Read "Surprised by Joy" before you go: It gives you the emotional map of his life that makes seeing the physical house way more impactful.
Seeing The Kilns isn't about looking at old furniture. It's about seeing how a very normal, slightly cramped, and often stressful domestic life was the soil that grew some of the greatest stories ever told. It makes the writing feel more accessible. If he could write The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe while dealing with a leaky roof and a cranky gardener, it makes you feel like maybe you can get some work done too.
To get the most out of your visit, coordinate your tour of the house with a stop at The Eagle and Child pub in central Oxford, where Lewis met with the Inklings. While the house was his private sanctuary, the pub was his public sounding board, and seeing both gives you the full picture of his Oxford life.