A small opening or storage compartment, typically in a basement or exterior wall, used for storing coal or delivering coal into a building.
Compound of 'coal' and 'hole' (from Old English 'hol'). Emerged in the 19th century as domestic heating with coal became standard.
Many Victorian London townhouses still have their original coalholes visible in the basement walls—small iron-grated doors that coal merchants would empty coal through, a physical reminder of how different urban life used to be.
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