Coldharbour

Coldharbour

A large messuage in the parishes of All Hallows the Great and All Hallows the Less in Dowgate Ward, which stood on the site now occupied by the City of London Brewery (q.v.).

The church of All Hallows the Less stood over an arched gate, which gave entry to this house (S. 237).

The earliest mention of the capital tenement called "Coldherberghe" occurs c. 1517, 13 Ed. II., when it was leased by Robert, son of William de Hereford to Sir John Abel for ten years (Cal. L. Bk. E. 108–9).

Sir John de Pulteney purchased it 8 Ed. III. (S. 237), and in 1347, 21 Ed. III., it is described as his messuage called "le Coldeherberghere" in the ward of Dowgate. with its lands extending from Thamise strete towards "le Heywharf" (Cal. Close Rolls, Ed. III. 1346–9, p. 236). The earl of Salisbury leased it from Sir J. Pulteney in 1346 (Cal. P.R. Ed. III. 1345–8, p. 141) and prior to his death, Sir John finally disposed of it to the Earl of Hereford in 1347 "with the wharf, etc., formerly belonging to Rob. de Hereford in the lane called 'Heywarflane'" (Cal. L. Bk. F. p. 158).

From the earl of Hereford it passed by marriage to the earl of Arundel, on whose attainder it fell to the Crown (H. Co. Mag. Vol. XIV. No. 54, p. 83).

In 1398, 21 Rich. II., licence was granted for the alienation in mortmain of two messuages called "le Coldherbergh" in parish of "All Hallows at Haywharf in the Ropery," being 66 ft. in length and 55 ft. in width for the enlargement of the said church and for making a cemetery (Cal. P.R. Rich. II. 1396–9, p. 353).

This licence did not include the whole property nor the principal messuage, but only some of the outlying parcels of land on the northern portion of the estate, and in the next reign, viz., 11th H. IV. 1410, the "inn or place called Coldeherbergh" was granted to Henry, Prince of Wales (Cal. P.R. H. IV. 1408–13, p. 172). By the 22nd H. VI. "the house called Coldherbergh," with its tenements in the parish of All Hallows the Less in the Ward of Dowgate had passed into the hands of John, duke of Exeter (Cal. P.R. H. VI. 1441–6, p. 230).

In 1461, on the attainder of Henry Holland, duke of Exeter, the house again came into the possession of the Crown, and in I Rich. III. 1484, the king made a grant of "Colde Arber" to the Heralds (Cal. P.R. Rich. III. 1476–85, p. 422).

It appears from the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. V. p. 775, that the books of the Office of Arms were kept at "Colherberd" in 1532.

In 1543 Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, obtained "Colherbert" in Thamys streete from the king in exchange for tenements belonging to him in the parish of St. Martin in the Fields (ib. XVIII. Pt. 1, p. 548). After his deposition it again came into the hands of the Crown, and was granted by the Protector Somerset, temp. Edward VI., to the Earl of Shrewsbury, who leased the eastern portion to the Waterman's Company for their Hall with the quays and watergate. In Norden's map of London, 1593, the remaining portion is described as "Shrewsbury House," and also in Hoefnagel's map, 1571, "Showsbury House."

In 1593 this western portion ceased to exist as a private house, and the earl rebuilt it and let it out in tenements, as appears from Remembrancia.

The Coldharbour was a privileged place, not subject to the jurisdiction of the City (H. MSS. Com. Salisbury Papers, V. p. 139).

In the 17th century it obtained a very evil reputation as the resort of low characters referred to in plays of the period, and was known as the "Devil's Sanctuary." It was made over to the Corporation of the City of London, 6 Jas. I. (Home Co. Mag. Vol. XIV. No. 54, pp. 85–7).

The capital messuage of "Colharbor" alias "Colharborowe" is mentioned in a deed of 1663 (L.C.C. Deeds, Harben Bequest, 1607–1700, No. 158).

Burnt in the Great Fire. Waterman's Hall rebuilt 1719. In 1778 the Company removed from this neighbourhood and the property passed to Henry Calvert, who founded the brewing firm whose business premises now occupy the site. See City of London Brewery.

The name of the old house was commemorated in "Coleharbour Lane" q.v.) leading to the Thames.

The derivation of this name has given rise to much discussion.

As a place name it is of frequent occurrence in various parts of the country. It occurs again in London within the Tower precincts, and in Clerkenwell and Camberwell, as already stated. In Sussex, not far from Dorking. In Hertfordshire.

Isaac Taylor, in "Words and Places," p. 171, says that there are no less than seventy places bearing this name to be found on ancient lines of roads, and he mentions three on Akerman Street, four on Ermine Street, two on Icknield Street, two on the Portways, and one on the Fossway, while other places bear the analogous name, "Caldicot."

In the London records referred to, the first syllable of the name is always given with "d" and is spelt "cold" or "colde," and Professor Skeat, in his Place Names of Hertfordshire, p. 68, in denouncing those who have raised difficulties about the derivation says that it means what it says and was a name given to a wayside refuge, "a place of shelter from the weather for wayfarers, constructed by the wayside," where the travellers could obtain shelter but no fire or food, "a cold shelter," and he attributes the same meaning to the syllable "cald" in "Caldicot."

Compare the "kalte herbergen" of Germany, the mediaeval inns.

See Haywharf Lane, Westones Lane.

Cold Harbour, or Coldharborough, Upper Thames Street, a capital messuage so called, of which Stow could find no earlier mention than the 13th of Edward II., when it was demised or let by Sir John Abel, knight, to Henry Stow, draper. It was subsequently sold (8th of Edward III.) to Sir John Poultney, who died in 1349, having filled the office of mayor on four several occasions. It was then called "Poultney's Inn," and "counted a right fair and stately house."¹ Passing though various hands, it came at last to the Crown. Richard III., in 1485, granted it to the College of Heralds, who had lately received their charter from him; and Henry VII., willing to annul every act of his predecessor, gave it to George Talbot, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury (d. 1541). Its after history is a little confused. Henry VIII. is known to have given it to Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, in exchange for Durham House, in the Strand, and Edward VI. to have given it, on Tunstal's deprivation, to Francis, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury. The date of the transfer to Tunstal is unknown, but that of the grant to Lord Shrewsbury was June 30, 1553, six days before the death of Edward VI. Francis, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, died in 1560; and his son, the sixth Earl, the guardian, for fifteen years, of Mary Queen of Scots (d. 1590), "took it down, and in place thereof built a great number of small tenements, letten out," in Stow's time, "for great rents to people of all sorts."¹ It was a place of sanctuary, but how or when it became so is not known. If the meaning of the term Cold Harbour be, as has been suggested, a bare or unfurnished place of shelter, its reputation as an asylum may have been traditional, and gained strength by acquiescence. At any rate it was popularly regarded as a sanctuary, if it had no legal title.

What! Is not our house our own Cole Harbour, our castle of come-down and lie?—Middleton, The Black Book. In his "Trick to Catch the Old One," he lays one of his scenes (Act iv. Sc. I) in "an apartment in Cole Harbour," and in a previous scene (Act iii. Sc. 3) one of the characters describes it as "The Devil's Sanctuary."

Or thence thy starved brother live and die,
Within the cold Coal-harbour sanctuary.
Bishop Hall, Satires, B. v. Sc. I.

Morose. Your knighthood itself shall come on its knees, and it shall be rejected; or it [knighthood] shall do worse, take sanctuary in Cole Harbour, and fast.—Ben Jonson, The Silent Woman.

Old Harding. And tho' the beggar's brat, his wife, I mean,
        Should, for the want of lodging, sleep on stalls,
        Or lodge in stocks or cages, would your charities
        Take her to better harbour?

John. Unless to Cold Harbour, where, of twenty chimnies standing, you shall scarce, in a whole winter, see two smoking. We harbour her? Bridewell shall first.—Heywood and Rowley, Fortune by Land and Sea, 4to, 1655.

Or hast thou tooke thee a chamber in Cold Harbour?—Nash's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596.

Justiniano. You swore you would build me a lodging by the Thames side with a water gate to it, or else take me a lodging in Cole Harbour.—Westward Ho, 4to, 1607.

The City of London Brewery (formerly Calvert's), No. 89 Upper Thames Street, occupies the site, and the name was until recently preserved in Cold Harbour Lane, leading to the Thames, by the burying-ground of Allhallows the Less, a church destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. The entrance was by an arched gate, on which stood the steeple and choir of Allhallows the Less. There is a Cold Harbour Lane in Camberwell, and there are (or were) a Cold Harbour in the Hackney Road, and a Cold Harbour Place in Southwark.

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¹ Stow, p. 89.

Coldharbour On the north bank of the Thames, slightly east of where Cannon Street Station now stands, was Coldharbour, once the residence of merchants and noblemen, purchased by Sir John de Poulteney in 1334 and sometimes called Pulteney’s Inn. In 1553 it was granted to George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and it appears in maps of that time as Shrewsbury House. It was burnt in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt and used by the Watermen’s Company for a hall. The Company moved to St Mary-at-Hill in 1778 and the site was subsequently occupied by the City of London Brewery.