The Gun - Coldharbour, Docklands, London, UK - Pictorial Pub Signs on Waymarking.com

The pub sign simply gives the pub's name as "The Gun". What makes it different is the hole that makes it look as though a cannon ball has been blasted through the sign from the back.

On the front of the pub is a plaque that reads:
"The Gun

There has been a public house on this site for over 250 years. This area was home to the dockside iron foundries which produced the guns for the Royal Naval Fleets.

The pub you are standing in took it name from the cannon which was fired to celebrate the opening of the West India Import Docks in 1802.

In the late 18th century Lord Horatio Nelson acquired a property just up the road, still known as Nelson's House, and he regularly visited the docks to inspect the guns up until his glorious death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Lord Nelson would frequent The Gun and regularly meet Lady Emma Hamilton in an upstairs room for their secret assignations.

The Gun also has a long association with smugglers landing contraband on this site and distributing it via a hidden tunnel. To this day there is still a spy-hole in the secret circular staircase to watch out for ' the Revenue men'.

As the docks on the Isle of Dogs flourished so did this pub, becoming the local for dockers, stevedores and boatmen.

The Gun is a Grade II listed building which has been carefully restored after a terrible fire in 2001. Many of its original features still remain. It was re-opened in August 2004 by brothers Tom and Ed Martin."

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The Gun's website: (visit link)

Name of Artist: Unknown Date of current sign: Unknown Date of first pub on site: c1750

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