What is "coalhole"

Usage examples of "coalhole".

Swearing to himself and wreathed in cobwebs he rootled through the coalhole until he found a quarter-full tin of the paint that had been flown in from Germany and used for the mutilated white wall.

Out there to the left was another door that gave access to what had been the house's coalhole, now a damp-dripping brick cave under the pavement.

Something must have happened to the paint while it was under the stairs in the coalhole because it had come out a much darker shade of white than when it had coated the wall, or perhaps it had reacted with the black spray paint underneath.