The Tolkien Society has unveiled a lovely new ‘blue plaque,’ (a.k.a. historical marker), at 2 Darnley Road, West Park, Leeds, commemorating the time J.R.R. Tolkien lived there. Tolkien became Reader in English language at the University of Leeds and went on to be Professor of the English Language at the university. In 1924 Tolkien bought the semi-detached property on Darnley Road and the family lived there for over a year before Tolkien’s election to the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair of Anglo-Saxon saw them return to Oxford in 1926.
Dr. Kersten Hall, graduate of St. Anne’s College, Oxford and Visiting Fellow to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Leeds, unveiled the plaque on the 1st of October 2012 at 11:30 a.m. local time.
Watchful visitors to the U.K. are sure to have seen a similar plaque on the house at 20 Northmoor Road, Oxford, where Tolkien lived and wrote LOTR during his tenure. There is a featured shot of this plaque in the documentary film, RINGERS: Lord of the Fans, which was co-produced by TheOneRing.net.