Lamb & Flag

The Lamb & Flag is a pub on St Giles’ in Oxford, owned by St John’s College. It stands just north of the college’s main entrance, with Lamb & Flag Passage cutting through its south side. The passage links St Giles’ with Museum Road, where Keble College has an entrance behind the pub. The building’s name comes from the symbol of Christ as the Lamb of God carrying a cross, a badge also linked to St John the Baptist. The college’s ownership is reflected in this emblem. The pub has operated since at least 1566, originally south of St John’s. In 1613 the college moved it to its present site, further from the main buildings. Later quadrangles built in the 20th and 21st centuries brought it back into the college’s orbit. St John’s took over running the pub in 1997, using its profits for graduate scholarships. The building is Grade II listed and has featured in novels and TV dramas. Inside, the pub’s low beams and snug corners recall its long history. Thomas Hardy may have drawn inspiration here for Jude the Obscure. Graham Greene drank here as a Balliol student, and the pub appears in P.D. James’ The Children of Men. It hosted the Inklings briefly after the Eagle and Child was modernised. The passage through the building still carries students between St Giles’ and Museum Road.