Coldharbour is a street and wider

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

in Blackwall, lying on the north bank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

, east of

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lo ...

. The area is said to be " e sole remaining fragment of the old

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Blackwall" and "one of the last examples of the narrow streets which once characterised the river's perimeter".London Borough of Tower Hamlets. 2009
Coldharbour Conservation Area.

History

Toponymy

The placename ''Coldharbour'' came in use from the early seventeenth century and its origins have been debated since the 1850s. Conflicting etymologies are given by authorities, with

Ernest Weekley Ernest Weekley (27 April 1865 – 7 May 1954) was a British philologist, best known as the author of a number of works on etymology. His ''An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' (1921; 850 pages) has been cited as a source by most author ...

contending that " is name is very frequently, and very unnecessarily, discussed. Its origin is quite well known, and it means what it appears to mean."Weekley, Ernest. 1927
''More Words Ancient and Modern.''
London: John Murrey. P. 162n. Those accepting the plainest derivationTaylor, Isaac. 1865
''Words and places; or, Etymological illustrations of history, ethnology, and geography.''
London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. Pp. 255–256. argue that a cold harbour was a "shelter of bare walls... used by travellers who carried their own bedding and provisions", often along a well-known route and similar to a modern

bothy A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Sco ...

. In alternative, a "coldharbour" could indicate ancient boundary marks in the form of artificial mounds of earth from Roman times, often filled with crockery or charcoal. The word could be derived either from the Latin ''collis arborum'', meaning "hill with trees", or from the Anglo-Saxon ''col'', meaning "coal" or "charcoal", ''har'', "hoary" or "ancient", and ''bearth'', a mound. The link with Roman roads has been contestedCoates, Richard. 1984. Coldharbour – for the Last Time? ''Nomina'' 8: 73–78. on the basis that the proximity of Roman roads provides a statistically weak explanation and the fact that the name is not recorded before 1590. It has also been suggested that most ''Coldharbour'' sites could have been named in a mocking manner after a dilapidated London aristocratic house. Other interpretations include "a place where goods were once... assembled for inland water transport or for portage."

Development

Coldharbour was originally a path on the top of the late Mediaeval embankment of the Thames connecting Blackwall Stairs to "somewhere near the present entrance to the south dock of the West India Docks".Porter, Stephen. 1994
Southern Blackwall: Coldharbour.
''Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs.'' London: The Athlone Press for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. Pp. 607–624. Accessed: 23 October 2011. The first buildings on Coldharbour appeared by the second decade of the seventeenth century, probably as part of the activities spreading on the Thames riverfront after the opening of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

's shipbuilding yard at Blackwall in 1614. A "ribbon of development" alongside the river at Coldharbour is marked on Joel Gascoyne's map of the Parish of St Dunstan's of 1703, comprising "dwelling houses, public houses, storehouses and warehouses ... interspersed with wharves, yards and even gardens."

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

describing Coldharbour as a place "where some fine Georgian merchants' houses have the water washing up to their walls".Betjeman, John. 1956
City and Suburban.
''The Spectator,'' 31 May. P. 13. Although the oldest surviving buildings date back to the early nineteenth century, "many of the riverside sites retain an integrity which can be traced back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." The opening of the

West India Docks The West India Docks are a series of three docks, quaysides and warehouses built to import goods from and export goods and occasionally passengers to the British West Indies on the Isle of Dogs in London the first of which opened in 1802. Follow ...

(in 1802) and the

City Canal The City Canal was a short, and short-lived, canal excavated across the Isle of Dogs in east London, linking two reaches of the River Thames. Today, it has been almost completely reconstructed to form the South Dock of the West India Docks. H ...

(in 1805) cut off Coldharbour from the rest of the riverside road, with traffic being diverted to a newly built Bridge Road (later New Road, now Preston's Road) in 1817. Evidence of land reclamation, probably related to the digging of the docks and canals in the early nineteenth century, was identified by an archaeological survey. These changes gave Coldharbour its present layout as "a tiny loop road off Preston's Road,"Nairm, Ian. 1966. The Gun, Coldharbour. In ''

Nairn's London ''Nairn's London'' is a 1966 book about the architecture of London. It is authored by British writer Ian Nairn and this is the work for which he is the best known. Architecture critic Jonathan Meades has praised the work as an "imperious mongre ...

.'' Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Pp. 163–164. upon which architectural critic

Ian Nairn Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised criti ...

remarked: "You will know a bit about East End topography by the time you find this one." The area between Coldharbour and Preston's Road was progressively developed from the eighteenth century with dwellings around the northern end and mixed industrial premises, including shipwrights, joiners, mast- and blockmakers, ship's smiths, a rigging house, a cooperage, a boot-building yard, coppersmiths, wholesale ships' ironmongers and oil merchants.

Character of the area

An investigator compiling

Booth Booth may refer to: People * Booth (surname) * Booth (given name) Fictional characters * August Wayne Booth, from the television series ''Once Upon A Time'' *Cliff Booth, a supporting character of the 2019 film ''Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'' ...

's poverty maps noted the following about the Isle of Dogs and Coldharbour: "A great many more people work there than live there, though many of those who live there would like to work there. Those who live there seldom leave. From week to week and year to year the men who are islanders remain there."Booth, Charles. 1897
Walk with Mr Carter, District Inspector of Police, District 11 (Poplar and Limehouse), 28 May 1897.
LSE Archives, Booth B346. Pp. 18–19.

Cold Harbour Infectious Diseases Receiving Station

In 1882 the Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) moved its smallpox hospital ships – the ''

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

'', the ''

Endymion Endymion primarily refers to: * Endymion (mythology), an Ancient Greek shepherd * ''Endymion'' (poem), by John Keats Endymion may also refer to: Fictional characters * Prince Endymion, a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime franchise * Raul ...

'' and the ''

Castalia Castalia ( grc, Κασταλία), in Greek mythology, was a naiad-nymph, a daughter of Achelous who inhabited the Castalian spring in Delphi. In older traditions, Castalian spring already existed by the time Apollo came to Delphi searching f ...

'' – to new moorings at Long Reach, an isolated stretch of the River Thames near

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...

, about 17 miles (27 km) from London Bridge. The removal of the ships to their new location required the provision of a River Ambulance Service to ferry patients from central London. The following year a pier was constructed at Long Reach for the reception of smallpox cases from wharves to be built at Rotherhithe, Poplar and Fulham. This 1870s a Cattle Wharf was acquired by the MAB, just north of the Gun public house in Cold Harbour (until the MAB took it over in 1884 it was used by the

General Steam Navigation Company The General Steam Navigation Company (GSN), incorporated in 1824, was London's foremost short sea shipping line for almost 150 years. It was the oldest shipping company in the world to begin business with seagoing steam vessels. Foundation ...

for keeping imported cattle in quarantine), with the aim to build the new "North Wharf Receiving Station" for infectious diseases. The East and West India Dock Company was dismayed at the prospect of highly contagious patients being brought to North Wharf along the narrow confines of Coldharbour, where several of the company’s dockmasters lived. This potential source of conflict was averted when the MAB decided to make a new road between Coldharbour and New (now Preston’s) Road over their land on the west side of the street, and the dock company readily consented to give up the small strip required to make the opening into New Road. Laid out in 1884–5, the new road was called Managers Street, after the managers of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. At the wharf itself the MAB’s main requirement was a floating pier or pontoon, so that the transfer of patients could take place at all states of the tide. It was connected to the wharf by a gangway. Both these features were designed by the MAB’s own engineer, Adam Miller (also described as a naval architect), who had devised the ventilation system for the hospital ship ''Castalia''. A galvanised-iron canopy was built in 1887 to protect patients, who were getting soaked through waiting for ambulances in the rain. The Receiving Station had an examination room and an isolation ward for patients too sick to be transferred by river ambulance to Long Reach. Other land works were postponed while priority was given to building of the pier, which opened in 1885, just as the epidemic subsided. As the number of smallpox cases declined, the service was reorganised in 1913. The North Wharf was used only for smallpox patients, while the South Wharf at Rotherhithe dealt with general fever cases. By 1921 the North Wharf had 9 beds. In 1930 the LCC took over administrative control from MAB. By this time the river service was rarely used, most patients being transferred by road. The service closed in May 1930 and, by 1933, the steamers had been sold. By the 1980s, the pier and pontoon had been removed and the wharf was being used for storing wood. The buildings were demolished in 1992 and as part of the revival of the Docklands, in 1997 the land of 17 Coldharbour was redeveloped by the Bethnal Green and Victoria Park Housing Association with a £370,000 grant1999
Housing: Appendix – Tables: TABLE 3 LDDC New Build Social Housing Programme.
''LDDC History Pages.'' Accessed: 25 October 2011. from the

London Docklands Development Corporation The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its seventeen-year existence it was responsible for regenerating an a ...

's housing programme.

Famous local individuals

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

is reported to have been a regular patron of the Fishing Smack, "one of the quaint old taverns by the river still standing in Coldharbour."Haw, George. 1909
''From Workhouse to Westminster: The Life Story of Will Crooks, M.P.''
Cassell and Co.: London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne. P. 32. Accessed: 17 February 2013. He wrote about the area after visiting it in May 1853.Dickens, Charles. 1853
Exploring Expedition to the Isle of Dogs.
In "Household Words. A Weekly Journal," 21 May. Pp. 273–277. The Fishing Smack public house stood at and was demolished about 1948, though "a section of the brown glazed brickwork which was once part of the street front survives at the south corner of No. 7." *

Horatio Nelson Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought abo ...

's association with the area is preserved in the name of Horatio Place. Local tradition claims that Nelson stayed at Nelson House at no. 3 Coldharbour "during a fleet refit", though the connection is open to doubt given that the name was first associated with the building only in 1881. The Gun pub at No. 27 Coldharbour claims an upstairs room was used by Nelson to meet

Emma, Lady Hamilton Dame Emma Hamilton (born Amy Lyon; 26 April 176515 January 1815), generally known as Lady Hamilton, was an English maid, model, dancer and actress. She began her career in London's demi-monde, becoming the mistress of a series of wealthy men ...

and the toilets are marked "Emma" and "Horatio". *

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...

had a house in southern area of Blackwall, opposite the Artichoke InnPorter, Stephen. 1994
Old Blackwall.
''Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs.'' London: The Athlone Press for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. Pp. 548–552. Accessed: 17 February 2013. where Northumberland Wharf now stands.Thorne, Wm. B. 1935
Artichoke Tavern, Blackwall
''Notes and Queries'' 168, p. 196. Accessed: 17 February 2013. His exploration of

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

in 1595 is commemorated by Raleana Road – Raleana being the name he gave to the territory. *

Thomas Spert Vice-Admiral of England Sir Thomas Spert (spelled in some records as Pert) (died December 1541) was a mariner who reached the rank of vice admiral in service to King Henry VIII of England. He was sailing master of the flagships ''Mary Rose'' and ...

, Controller of the Navy to

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

and first Master of

Trinity House "Three In One" , formation = , founding_location = Deptford, London, England , status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity , purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons , he ...

, lived in a wooden manor house at 152 East India Dock Road at a time when the Coldharbour stretched farther towards Blackwall.Sir Thomas Spert (died 1541).
''PortCities London''. Accessed: 25 October 2011.

Heritage

The industrial and maritime activities of Coldharbour's past are no more and today the area is largely residential. The Coldharbour conservation area, designated in 1975 and expanded in 2008, comprehends several historic buildings as well as engineering structures pertaining to the former docks.

Listed buildings

The area is said to be " e sole remaining fragment of the old hamlet of Blackwall" and "one of the last examples of the narrow streets which once characterised the river's perimeter".LBTH. 2007
Coldharbour Conservation Area.
London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The modern surroundings, which include

and

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the s ...

, contribute to "making this surviving pocket all the more valuable and remarkable." Several buildings in the conservation area, dating mostly to the late 18th and early 19th century, have listed status: * Blackwall Basin (Grade I) * 24 Prestons Road (Grade II) * 1 Coldharbour (Grade II) Isle House, at no. 1, was built in 1825–1826 by the West India Dock Company and used as a dock master's residence until the 1880s. Reputed to be "the finest house in Coldharbour," it was built with two storeys raised above a tall basement and full-height

bow window A bow window or compass window is a curved bay window. Bow windows are designed to create space by projecting beyond the exterior wall of a building, and to provide a wider view of the garden or street outside and typically combine four or more w ...

s on the east and north fronts to give the occupants clear views of the Thames and the Blackwall entrance to the Docks. * 3 Coldharbour (Grade II) * 5 Coldharbour (Grade II) * 7 Coldharbour (Grade II) * 15 Coldharbour (Grade II) * 19 Coldharbour (Grade II) * The Gun Tavern Public House, 27 Coldharbour Notable engineering structures include the northern entrance to the West India Basin and the entrance to the former City Canal, which cut across the peninsula and gave the "Isle" of Dogs its insular title. Public access to the street, entrance locks and to the perimeter of the Blackwall Basin and Graving Dock is maintained.

The riverside

An extension of the

Thames Path The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from its source near Kemble, Gloucestershire, Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about long. A path was first proposed in 1948 but it onl ...

runs along Coldharbour,WalkLondon. 2011
Thames Path Walk: Section 4 north bank (Island Gardens to East India).
where the river view is obstructed by a series of buildings. Public access to the riverside is possible at the former entrance to Blackwall Basin, now sealed, and by Lockeryard Pier, where the path rejoins the Thames waterfront at the height of Stewart St. The architectural critic Ian Nairn noted that this "particular bit of the riverside is the sharpest part of the curve around Blackwall Point. Nowhere is the muddy horizontal excitement of the Thames more urgent than here, ..the curvature making sure that the maximum amount of swift-running water stays in view."

Geography

Coldharbour is situated in the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...

and is bounded by Landons Close to the north, by Marsh Wall to the south, by Preston Road and

Wood Wharf Wood Wharf is a 23 acrehttps://group.canarywharf.com/portfolio/wood-wharf/ Wood Wharf, Canary Wharf Group PLC, Retrieved 26 April 2018 site in Canary Wharf, London. It is currently under construction to provide offices, residential homes and ret ...

to the west and by the river Thames to the east.

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

editor Andrew Whitehead described it as a "little enclave of riverine London ... spitting distance from Canary Wharf but sealed off from it by dock basins, new developments, and sturdy boundary walls."Andrew Whitehead. 2013
Out Beyond Limehouse – An End of Year Ramble.
''AndrewWhitehead.net'', 29 Dec Accessed: 30 December 2013

Transport

Docklands Light Railway

While there are no stations in Coldharbour, the nearest station is

Blackwall DLR station Blackwall is a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station in Blackwall area of Poplar in London, England. It is located very close to the northern entrance to the Blackwall road tunnel under the River Thames. The station is on the Beckton branch ...

in neighbouring Blackwall on the

Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Londo ...

Travelcard Zone 2 Fare zone 2 is an inner zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail services. Ba ...

that opened on 28 March 1994.

London Buses

;Previous *56 (Mile End - Poplar Blackwall Tunnel) from 1942 to 1969, replaced by

277 __NOTOC__ Year 277 ( CCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Probus and Paulinus (or, less frequently, year 1030 ''A ...

* 106 (Finsbury Park - Crosshabour) from 1983 to 1989, replaced by D6. *277 (Smithfield - Poplar Baths) from 1959 to 1989, replaced by D7 *N50 (Trafalgar Square - Gallons Reach Retail Park) from 1995 to 2008, replaced by N550.

Roads

Coldharbour is connected to the National Road Network by the north-south Prestons Road A1206.

Education

Nearest places

* Blackwall * Poplar *

Cubitt Town Cubitt Town is a district on the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs in London, England. This part of the former Metropolitan Borough of Poplar was redeveloped as part of the Port of London in the 1840s and 1850s by William Cubitt, Lord Mayor of L ...

Notes

External links

;Coldharbour in paintings * Thomas Rowlandson. 1810
Entrance to Blackwall Docks.
(Looking northwards towards the entrance to the City Canal and Coldharbour; showing dockers at rest.) Tinted drawing
''©British Museum''
*Thomas Rowlandson. 1824
The West India Docks, Blackwall, with warships lying on the stocks.
(Looking northwards towards the entrance to the City Canal and Coldharbour; showing dockers at work.) Tinted drawing
''©Christie’s, London.''
*Charles Napier Hemy. 1872
Blackwall.
(Facing south-west towards Coldharbour and Cubitt Town.) Oil on canvas
''©Museum of London.''
*Charles Napier Hemy. 1896
Cold Harbour, Blackwall.
''Christie's, London.'' Sale 5386, Lot 121. *PLA Staff Photographer. 1929
South East India Dock.''©Museum of London.''
;Historical maps of Coldharbour *John Rocque. 1746
An exact survey of the cities of London and Westminster, the Borough of Southwark with the Country near 10 miles round.''©National Maritime Museum.''
{{LB Tower Hamlets Port of London Charles Dickens Streets in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Blackwall, London