Although there has been a Gun pub on the site since before 1755, the current building is the result of a rebuilding in 1880-81 to a design by James H. Money (1834-1918), the architect of Newbury Town Hall.
The Gun forms a piece with the Falkland Memorial on the opposite side of Essex Street (commemorating the First Battle of Newbury), also designed by James H. Money.
Externally substantially as rebuilt in 1880-81, although there have been additions to the rear. Internally there have been changes, but two separate bars survive.
Two storey. Brick and clay tile gable and hipped roof. Clay tile-hung first floors. Simple bargeboards, with central timber gable finials. 2 chimney stacks with 3 shafts, each with diamond section.
South elevation: Gable facing Essex St, one large window to ground floor (four lights, plus top-lights); and one to first floor (three lights, plus toplights). Gable itself tile-hung, with bargeboard and central timber gable finials. String course above ground floor window. Clay tiled veranda to right of gable with timber posts and brackets.
West elevation: Original single storey gable projection to the west, with original mock timbers in gable. Later flat roof extensions to either side.
East elevation: Bay window at ground floor, three-light first floor window with toplights. Tile-hung gable with bargeboard and timber gable finial. Two-storey flat-roofed addition to north-west, with tile-hung first floor.
North elevation: Modern flat roof extensions to rear.
Interior. Public bar to east, lounge bar to west, with main entrance on south side. Both served from same bar area, which runs into both. Lounge bar divided by chimney, with area behind, to north/north-west, with slightly raised floor and wainscoting.
There has been a local tradition associating this pub with the century of the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 (e.g. Hopson 1983; Ullage 2011). It is plausible that it has a 17th century origin, but evidence is currently lacking.
The earliest known reference is a document of 1755, by which the Borough of Newbury leased it to Edward King, where it is specifically referred to as a public house “known by the name or sign of the Gun” (1755 Lease).
The Gun also appears in a list of Newbury pubs written in 1761, as the “Gun at Wash Gate”, with Edward King as landlord (Newbury Borough minutes). It continued in the ownership of Newbury Borough Council, and in 1880 it was leased to Hawkins Brewery (of West Mills, Newbury), on condition that they rebuilt the pub according to plans prepared by Newbury architect James H. Money, and completed the work before June 1881 (1880 lease). In May 1880, James H. Money placed an advertisement in the Newbury Weekly News to invite tenders for “alterations” to the pub (NWN). The external appearance of The Gun is still largely that designed by James H.Money and built 1880-81. In 1897 the South Berks Brewery was formed by the merger of Hawkins and Parfitt’s (Bartholomew St) breweries, and the following year The Gun was sold by the Newbury Borough Council to the South Berks Brewery (Newbury Borough minutes 1898). The building has continued as The Gun pub until the present day, with the large scale development of Wash Common for housing from the 1970s increasing potential for trade.
Location
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