Sir,—Some years ago, a good deal of discussion took place as to the origin and meaning of this name occurring in many places in England and in London itself. It may now be taken as settled that it is considered to refer to a place where wayfarers received shelter (i.e., harbour), but not fire or anything else, in other words “cold comfort.”
In maps of Old London, a mansion called Coleharbour, or Coldharbour, or Coldharborough. is distinctly shown. It was situated near Old Swan Stairs, where now is the City of London Brewery, and until recent years Coldharbour Lane led to the Thames by the burial ground of Allhallows the Less.
Being thus so close to Dowgate, London’s earliest port, and to the Steelyard, the home of the Hanse League merchants, Sir Walter Besant says that “Cold Harbour is supposed to be a corruption of Colner Herberg (Cologne Inn),” and adds: “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 land where Cannon Street Station now stands was granted by one of the Saxon kings to Cologne traders, and it was
from the Corporation of Cologne that the South-Eastern Railway bought the freehold. It may be that former inhabitants of
the locality, settling in various parts of England, called their house after it. Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, has been
traced to this source.
W. J. ROFFEY.
Hilldrop Road, N.7.
Source info: See 117a.