The Gun

About The Gun

A historic riverside pub on the Isle of Dogs, said to take its name from a cannon fired to signal ship movements and curfews at the old West India Docks, and long rumoured to have hosted secret meetings between Nelson and Lady Hamilton.

The Gun stands on Coldharbour, a quiet cobbled riverside lane on the Isle of Dogs that predates the surrounding Canary Wharf development by centuries, and the pub is thought to take its name from a cannon once fired here to mark the arrival of ships and the nightly curfew at the adjacent West India Docks. Local tradition holds that Admiral Lord Nelson used a private room here for meetings with Emma, Lady Hamilton, away from public view, a claim impossible to verify but consistently repeated in the pub's own history and by local guides. Now run by the brewer Fuller's, it combines a genuinely historic riverside building with a confident gastropub food operation, and its terrace, directly on the Thames and facing the O2 arena across the water, is one of the most photographed river views available from any pub in the borough. It draws a mix of Canary Wharf workers, Thames Path walkers and diners booking ahead specifically for the river-view terrace.