Harbourside Walk: Ship's Rooms

Inscription

HARBOURSIDE WALK (NORTH). Ship's Rooms.

HISTORICAL SIDELIGHT Hill O' Chips is the oldest surviving street name in St. John's, appearing on maps from the early 1700s (when Water Street was still known as the Lower Path). The first street to run northward, the Hill O' Chips once connected the Ordance Wharf to Fort William (presently the site of the Sheraton Hotel).

The earliest maps of St. John's show nine fishing ship's rooms on the north side of the harbour, each beside a stream. A Ship's Room was a fishing "plantation," with wharves, flakes and storehouses.

In the early days the rooms were occupied by the masters of ships from England on a "first come" basis, with the captain of the first ship to arrive for the season becoming "admiral" of the harbour for the season. For this reason the most favoured room — with the closest deep-water anchorage to the Narrows — was known as the Admiral's Room, located just west of here at Queen's Cove.

Each room was built around a cove on the north side of the harbour. As Water Street grew out over the harbour, these "coves" became streets, providing public access to the harbour. The coves were given the names of prominent merchants.

Gill's Cove, located near this site, is the oldest surviving "cove-name" in St. John's, after an enterprising family of New England traders who dominated the commercial and public life of St. John's for much of the 18th century.

The ship's rooms existed until 1811, when private property was legalized in Newfoundland. The ship's rooms were divided into lots, and leases on the lots were auctioned off by the Crown.

"A South View of St. John's Harbour, during a severe frost" (1838) by Newfoundland artist, William Gosse, is a view from just above this spot, most likely from the ramparts of Fort William.

The northeast corner of St. John's harbour, at the bottom of Temperance Street, was for many years known as Maggotty Cove. In this photo, taken in about 1900, the beach at Maggotty Cove is still visible. In the background, the old ship's rooms have been developed as mercantile premises, each room having a substantial wharf, and warehouses. The railway track visible at bottom right is part of the spur line that ran from the original railway station, at Fort William, via a switchback to the old railway wharf. Note also the British warships moored in the harbour.

This sketch, "a stage and the manner of fishing at Newfoundland" dates from the early 1700s and shows the tasks performed by fishermen and shoremen at a fishing ship's room.

The harbour and Fort Townshend in the 1700s. This sketch shows the extent to which a town was growing on the north side of the harbour. The artist, Lieutenant E.P. Brenton, was an officer stationed at the Garrison.

This 1840s sketch of the Battery Road area and the Narrows, by Lt. Col. John Oldfield, shows a section of the harbour that was still lined with fishing rooms at that date.

Reef Knot or Square Knot

Locations of Historyboards Harbourside Walk North

Johnson Family Foundation Research, Design and Installation GRAND CONCOURSE The Walker's Paradise

Commemorates 1700–1811