The Old Cannon Brewery

The Old Cannon Brewery is a pub with rooms on Cannon Street, a few minutes from the centre of Bury St Edmunds, and dogs are a normal part of the scene here rather than a special arrangement. Guests travelling with dogs consistently describe staff who go out of their way to help, and the property earns a 4.5/5 paw rating.

Dogs are welcome in the bar and dining area downstairs as well as in the bedrooms, and that is the main practical draw: you can eat and drink where you are staying without leaving your dog upstairs on its own. Breakfast is cooked to order and the vegetarian version gets particular praise. Rooms are comfortable, with large beds and good shower rooms, and there is luggage storage if you arrive before check-in.

The location works well for a dog. Bury St Edmunds is a compact market town, so the abbey ruins and the Abbey Gardens are an easy walk away and a late evening or early morning outing does not need the car.

Two things temper it. The walls between rooms are thin, and guests have reported being kept awake by noise from next door, which matters more than usual if your dog is a light sleeper or reacts to sounds through a wall. The bar has also closed earlier than expected on some evenings. And while dogs eating in the pub is exactly what draws some owners here, it is not to everyone's taste, so expect other people's dogs around you downstairs.

Best suited to dog owners who want a pub with rooms in the middle of a market town, where the dog can come down to dinner, and who will not be troubled by a lively bar and some noise through the wall.