Ok, so to update from this thread, it’s a bit less than a month out now; I’ll be in London from July 31st to Aug 4th and would love to get together with folks. My only real want/need is to visit the pub that Tolkien aparently spent a bit of time at. Otherwise, my schedule and mind are open books.
Any good really cheap suggestions for things to see/places to stay would be great as well.
That’s the Eagle and Child in Oxford isn’t it?
That’s the one, aka The Bird and Baby, and also (less often) as The Foetus and Fowl. It’s at 49 St Giles, Oxford, map here .
It’s about one-half mile walk from the Oxford train station, or a quarter-mile from the Oxford coach station (where the long-distance buses from London, such as the Oxford Tube – much cheaper than the train – arrive and depart).
Hmmmph! SteveWright1, why did you not take me at least past this pub?
Now I’ll just have to figure out a way to make another trip over. Damn job hunt.
Knowing Steve, its because he knows that its outrageously overrated.
He’s a man after my own heart - bet he showed you more “off the record” famous places than any of the standard fare you’ll see in the tourist guides 
In all honesty, I can’t complain. He showed me everything I asked him to, and if we didn’t get to tour one of the colleges and the Bodlian, that was my fault for having sore feet. At that, he kept me upright for at least part of our walkabout.
He DID show me the Pitt Museum (?) with all the doo-dads brought back from around the world by the Victorian travelers. That was really, really cool. And he took me punting, a memory I treasure.
Besides, this only gives me an excuse to come back and pester y’all again, someday.
Not just doo-dads, but a Dodo!
To get to the Pitt Rivers Museum, you have to pass through the Oxford University Museum of Natural History:
Dodgson / Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and Tolkien make a pretty impressive Oxford trio of fantasy writers, although of course Dodgson preceded the other two by decades.
As regards the Eagle and Child, it can certainly get crowded with Tolkien fans (I would imagine especially in recent years since the PJ movies), but being right on St. Giles it’s scarcely out of the way even if you’re just going to walk past and look in through the window!
A good pub tour of Oxford can take at least week in any case…
We are just missing. I will be driving to Glasgow from London on Aug. 1-3, then in Glasgow until the 11th. Won’t make it back to London until the 16th or 17th.
What sort of budget are you on? What sort of things do you like to do?
I’m an American in London for a year or two now, and have some recommendations…
Free stuff:
Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern. Walk through the monument area (Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, various statues and stuff). Hyde Park is cool.
Cheap Stuff:
Half-price theatre tickets during the day are all over London;
Medium:
Lots of stuff here, just depends on what you want…
Expensive:
A whole 'nother world. Conran restaurants (Blue Bird is my favourite), Hakkasan for some of the best food I have ever eaten, Oxo Tower for great food and a great view
Oh - as soon as you get here, get a TimeOut London… it’s a great magazine that’s got all of what’s on and you can get it any any newsagent…
Almost forgot - Westminster Abbey and the changing of the Guard. Open-top bus tours are cool, but I think the bus tour in Oxford is much cooler, especially as you already want to see the Eagle and Childe and will be there anyways…