Coldharbour House

Coldharbour, Cold Harbour, Cold Harborough or Cold Inn was a medieval mansion house that stood on the north bank of the River Thames just upstream from London Bridge and close to the site of the present Cannon Street Station.

The building was located in Upper Thames Street, then a narrow riverside lane, along with other noblemen's mansions. The house is first mentioned in the reign of Edward II as belonging to the knight Sir John Abel. In 1334 it was bought by the merchant draper Sir John de Pulteney, who was four times Lord Mayor of London during the 1330s, and became known as Pulteney's Inn. At the end of the fourteenth century, it belonged to John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, a half-brother of King Richard II, whom he entertained in the house.

In 1410, King Henry IV granted it to his son, the future King Henry V. Richard III gave Coldharbour to the College of Arms, of which he was patron, for storing records and to provide living space. Henry VII took possession of the building away from the College and gave it to his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. The house later became the property of the Earls of Shrewsbury, and its name was changed to Shrewsbury House.

Coldharbour was either dismantled by the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury or destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666, though a later building of the same name, constructed on the same site, was used as the Hall of the Watermen's Company until 1778.

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