History and the modern world live side by side in London like nowhere else in the world. Minutes from the shining chrome skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, I'm in a pub that was here when Sir Walter Raleigh set sail to the New World from directly outside in 1587.

The Grapes has been here for nearly 500 years and looks it. It has outlasted God knows how many other pubs that have come and gone in that time. A century on from Raleigh, Samuel Pepys' diary records his trip to a jetty nearby and later Charles Dickens was a regular visitor to the area. Dickens is said to have included The Grapes in the opening chapter of his novel, Our Mutual Friend, in which he describes it as "a tavern of dropsical appearance... long settled down into a state of hale infirmity" (the pub has a complete set of Dickens books arranged on its shelves).

Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and painter Francis Bacon are also said to have been fascinated with this part of London and the pub's walls are adorned with oil paintings and water-colours as well as books. And today, there's another British icon linked to The Grapes. The current leaseholder is Sir Ian McKellen, national treasure and legend of stage and screen, who has seven Olivier awards for his theatre acting but is probably best known to most for playing Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.

I've wanted to visit this pub for ages and on a recent trip to London, I finally did. Within minutes of emerging from the London Underground's frantic Canary Wharf station, I was in relative solitude on the streets of Limehouse and outside the pub, where its colourful hanging baskets and the warm glow through frosted glass could not have been more welcoming.

I thought I'd been smart getting here before 6pm but there were no available seats to be seen in the snug bar downstairs and I started to worry I'd be denied my fish and chips. Then I found a narrow stairway hidden behind the bar and ventured up it to find a free table (made from a large wooden barrel) in another cute and cosy room upstairs.

From out of the window, darkness fell over the Thames and the Canary Wharf skyline downstream and I headed down to the bar to order my dinner and a pint of Guinness. The pint was £6.15, which is in no way unreasonable in London. Paying £18.50 for fish and chips in a beautiful pub owned by a bona fide movie star in London felt fair too.

The fish and chunky chips came with a generous dollop of mushy peas and a fairly standard side salad of rocket, chopped cucumber, onion and tomatoes. There's not a huge amount more to say about the food. It was thoroughly enjoyable in a non-spectacular way. I did notice that the fish and its light batter were not in the least bit greasy, so I didn't feel slightly gross after eating it as can sometimes happen with a greasy fish supper. The Guinness was good too.

Pubs and restaurants are all about how they make you feel. In The Grapes, I felt happy. In fact, I'll sum up how I felt in three words: gutted to leave.