Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
Beyond the station is the City of London Brewery. The archway spanning
the central entrance to this occupies the site of an earlier arch which
once carried the choir and steeple of Allhallows the Less, and led to
what Stow speaks of as “the great house called Cold Harbrough.” Its site
is now covered by the brewery. The name of the house is conjectured to
be a corruption of the German words Colner Herberg (Cologne Inn), which
passed into Coln Harbrough, Cole Harbrough, Cold Harbrough, and Cold
Harbour. Cologne being one of the principal of the Hanse towns, the
proximity of the steelyard makes this derivation appear likely. There
are several Cold Harbours in England, none of them remarkable for bleak
situations, but most of them existing in places where commerce once
greatly throve. The house stood at the water’s edge. It was a large
building, with steps leading down to the river through an arched door.
About the year 1600 it is represented with five gables facing the water,
and rows of mullioned diamond-pane windows—a beautiful building. It had
the right of sanctuary, though how or when gained is not known.
Until 1607 Cold Harbour had been outside the City jurisdiction, for it
is one of the places added to the City’s rule by the charter of James I.
to the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London in that year. It must
have been deserted by its original inhabitants, the Cologne merchants,
before the reign of Edward II. It belonged to the Poultney family, and
was for some time called Poultney’s Inn.
“In the year 1397, 21 Richard II., John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, was
lodged there, and Richard II., his brother, dined with him. It was then
counted a right fair and stately house: but in the next year following
Edmond, Earl of Cambridge, was there lodged, notwithstanding the said
house still retained the name of Poultney’s Inn in the reign of Henry
VI., the 26th of his reign” (Stow).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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