First Look at the Famous Lamp-post?
Door Jam: November 24, 2025
The Door Jam is a place to squeeze in articles about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, their work, adaptations of their fantasy worlds, news from other franchises, and interesting articles. Unless otherwise stated, I’m not endorsing (or criticizing) any of these but merely sharing them with you.
We may have gotten our first glimpse at one of the most iconic symbols of Narnia—the London lamp-post that sprouts in the ground in The Magician’s Nephew and greets Lucy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
NarniaWeb obtained an image purportedly from Greta Gerwig’s Narnia set, which may give us our first (grainy) look at the cinematic design of the famous lamp-post.
The photo was taken on the set featuring Digory and Polly’s home. This will likely also be where the events from “The Fight at the Lamp-Post” will be filmed. That would mean these lamp-posts would give us an indication of the lamp-post’s appearance.
There is no way of knowing if the lamp-post pictured will be the specific one Jadis rips off the crossbar from in London and throws at Aslan in Narnia. But, since that lamp-post was one of many on the street, the design should be the same.
Here’s the description from The Magician’s Nephew of how she first grabs the bar:
Lightly, easily, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, she stretched up her right arm and wrenched off one of the cross-bars of the lamp-post. If she had lost some magical powers in our world, she had not lost her strength; she could break an iron bar as if it were a stick of barley-sugar.
Here’s how the lamp-post falls to the ground in Narnia:
Suddenly, the Witch stepped boldly out toward the Lion. It was coming on, always singing, with a slow, heavy pace. It was only twelve yards away. She raised her arm and flung the iron bar straight at its head.
Nobody, least of all Jadis, could have missed at that range. The bar struck the Lion fair between the eyes. It glanced off and fell with a thud in the grass. The Lion came on. Its walk was neither slower nor faster than before; you could not tell whether it even knew it had been hit. Though its soft pads made no noise, you could feel the earth shake beneath their weight.
The cross-bar grows into a lamp-post and is discovered by Lucy when she walks through the wardrobe.
She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and through the wood toward the other light. In about ten minutes, she reached it and found it was a lamppost. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp-post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next, she heard a pitter patter of feet coming toward her. And soon after that, a very strange person stepped out from among the trees into the light of the lamp-post.
Read more at NarniaWeb.
With the Thanksgiving holiday this week in the U.S., I won’t be sending out the usual Wednesday article, and The Horse and His Boy read-along will start back up next week.
Not Safe But Good
C.S. Lewis quote of the week
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
“Is Theology Poetry?” in The Weight of Glory
Tumnus’ bookshelf
Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien
In honor of Narnia’s beginning 75 years ago, HarperCollins has released The Chronicles of Narnia 7-in-1 deluxe hardcover slipcase edition.
Even with 25% off at Amazon, it’s still a pricey version at $112.63. However, it appears to be one that you could showcase on a shelf or Narnia display.
Here’s a video review of the book.
The Problem of Printers
Bad C.S. Lewis book covers
This looks like someone just found a random royalty free photo of a city and slapped some text on it. I suppose it could be worse. They could’ve used a picture of a couple getting a divorce.
Behind the Wardrobe
Sneak peek at the bonus articles
Below, paid subscribers will see articles on:
More on Narnia’s 75th anniversary
First public complaint over Narnia/Imax deal emerges from theater chain
Catching up with the stars of BBC’s 1988 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Modern fantasy series inspired by Lewis and Tolkien
Tolkien items up for auction, including one given to him by Lewis
Lots, lots more this week!
