The Gun is a Grade II-listed riverside pub on the Isle of Dogs, tucked down a lane of old cottages a short walk from the towers of Canary Wharf. There’s been a pub on the site for more than 250 years, and it takes its name from the cannon fired to celebrate the opening of the West India Import Docks in 1802.
Local legend has it that Lord Nelson, who lived just up the road, met Lady Emma Hamilton for secret assignations in an upstairs room, now known as the River Room. The pub also had a reputation as a smugglers’ haunt. After a fire gutted much of the interior in 2001, it was restored over nine months and reopened in 2004, and it’s now part of the Fuller’s estate.
The restoration kept the period feel. At the front is a dark-wood bar decorated with antique guns and paintings of naval battles, and behind it sit two snugs: the Red Room, with Chesterfield sofas and wingback leather armchairs, and the Gun Room, with an original Georgian bullseye fireplace. The big draw, though, is the riverside terrace, which looks straight across the Thames to the O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula. Tables are limited, so it pays to arrive early on sunny days.
The dining room serves modern British food that’s a step up from standard pub fare. Dishes include butter-roasted chicken with a chicken and truffle pasty, a raclette cheeseburger, and pan-roasted Cornish monkfish in shellfish peppercorn sauce. The Sunday roast is a big draw serving up beef sirloin, roast venison shank, and slices of roast porchetta. There’s an excellent set lunch menu too, that brings in the Canary Wharf crowd during the week.