An appeal to the public to raise £4.5m to buy JRR Tolkien’s former home in Oxford has failed. Project Northmoor launched a crowdfunding campaign in December to raise money to acquire Tolkien’s former house at 20 Northmoor Road in Oxford, before it was put on to the market. The Tolkien Society distanced itself from the project, after being approached for support by organizers, saying that the house “would not be a museum and would not be open to the public,” and that given the property is a listed building and already has a blue plaque celebrating the author, it is “well protected under the law and not in need of rescue.”