London's missing Roman road Improbable as it seems I believe I have found a missing Roman road in South London and Westminster. I am not a trained archaeologist but I am as convinced as I can be (without a formal archeological dig) that I have found the original course of Watling Street, the most important road in Roman Britain. I have always wondered why the A2, the Roman Watling Street deviates from the straight line it follows throughout Kent to follow this very unconvincing route. The top red line shows where the Roman road 'ought' to go, and if I am right, where it actually does go (apart from a slight deviation to the south in the Deptford and Greenwich area); the bottom line shows its present route. I have found a method of finding Roman roads by using a form of 'field walking', that is, by checking for any unusual subsidence patterns that an object as massive as a Roman road might have generated. This is not an entirely new method, it has long been recognised that in open countryside traces of Roman roads often remain, but it is generally assumed that it is not possible to find any traces in built-up urban areas.

However, it would seem that even where areas were completely levelled during the urbanisation of London that under certain conditions further settling takes place leaving characteristic undulations, particularly on the kerbstones of pavements. Bizarrely the effect is strongest in the low walls often found around council estates. I drew a pencil line on a map of the theoretical alignment of the continuation of Watling Street and followed this as best I could to see if any traces were still remaining. Initially I did not expect to find much because South London is now heavily built-up. To my astonishment I found this strong and unusual subsidence pattern on a council estate just to the north of Elephant and Castle almost exactly where my pencil line had predicted it to be, and I knew I was on to something. Falmouth Road, Rockingham Estate, SE1 In fact, these indications of what is almost certainly Watling Street occur along a considerable length of where the Roman road 'ought' to be, that is, following the straight alignment. I found this particularly strong subsidence pattern over a mile to the east of Elephant and Castle in the oddly named Galleywall Road (this name has very obvious Roman connotations - a galley is a type of Roman ship).

It is an almost identical feature to the Falmouth road one and probably represents the road having been 'robbed out', that is, its materials have been dug out for other building purposes. Galleywall Road, Bermondsey, SE16 The most curious thing about this original route is that after passing through Greenwich and Deptford it continues straight through South London to cross the Thames at Westminster. After this it almost certainly joined up with the North London Watling Street, the present Edgware road. If my theory is correct then the original Watling Street was built to cross the existing crossing at Westminster (almost certainly a ford). It was never intended to cross at the London Bridge crossing as is usually assumed, and this raises questions as to why the Romans chose to make London their city and not Westminster. (see pre-Roman London and) This is a transcription (merely changing the strange long 'S's with modern ones) of a document I found at the Guildhall Library in London (it was too old to photocopy) by checking a reference that the road had been seen in South London in the eighteenth century.

It is part of a description of the route Watling Street took when it was still visible, before much of South London was built upon. This was written by the famous antiquarian William Stukeley (best known for his research on Stonehenge). He has followed Watling Street down from Warwickshire and this is how he describes the missing section. William Stukeley 1722 Hence the road goes through Edgworth; and so at Paddington, by Tyburn, it crosses the other Roman road, called now Oxford-street, which was originally continued to Old-street, going north of London one way; the other way it proceeds by the back side of Kensington and through an unfrequented path, till it falls into the present Great road to Brentford, Stanes, &c. and it is a Roman road all the way, going pretty nearly east and west: therefore our Watling-street must cross it with an oblique angle; and by observation I found it to be about forty-five degrees.

Higden takes notice that Watling-street ran to the west of Westminster over the Thames, so through the middle of Kent: from Tyburn I judge it goes over part of Hyde park,* and by May-fair, through St. Jamesï¿½s park to the street by old Palace-yard called Wool-stable, to the Thames, here has been an old gate; one arch left but not Roman. On the opposite side of the river is Stan-gate ferry, which is the continuation of this street to Canterbury, and so to the three famous sea-ports, Rupiudae, Dubris and Lemanis.

This Oxford road was originally carried north of London, in order to pass into Essex, because London then was not considerable; but in a little time became well nigh lost; and Holborn was struck out from it, as conducting travellers thither, directly entering the city at Newgate, originally called Chamberlainï¿½s gate, and so to London-stone, the lapis millitaris from which distances are recorded: and hence the reason why the name of Watling-street is still preserved in the city, though the real Watling-street goes through no part of it, but through Southwark; or if we please, we may call this a vicinal branch of the Watling street. According to method I should speak of Londinium here: but because the great deal that may be said thereupon will make a discourse by itself, we contend ourselves at present with giving a plan of it, as we suppose it might appear in the times of the Romans; and so continuing our tour into Kent, will finish the whole continuation of Watling street with what few memoirs I could pick up at that time.

As Old-street went on the north of London, so the proper Watling-street we have been upon, since High-cross in Warwickshire, went on the south; from Stan-gate ferry across St. Georgeï¿½s fields, so south of the Lock hospital to Deptford and Black heath: a small portion of the ancient way pointing to Westminster Abbey is now the common road on this side the nearest turnpike; but the continuation of it is quite lost since the bridge was made, and all roads meet at that centre as so many radii when London became considerable, the ferry over-against it, from being better attended, rendered that at Stan-gate almost useless; so passengers went through the city by Canon-street, Watling-street, and Holborn; hence so little appears of it between Tyburn and the Lock hospital; and probably its materials were long since wholly dug away to mend the highways. Upon this way in Southwark many Roman antiquities have been found, particularly a Janus of stone, in possession of Dr. Woodward: but our business shall be to prosecute the end of the second journey and the whole third and fourth of Antininus.

From Shooters hill the direction of the road, very plain both ways; a mile westward from the bottom of the hill you find vestiges of it just upon the common: some part of the agger is left, made of gravel near at hand: from the top of Shooters hill you see it butts upon Westminster abbey, where it passes the Thames; and this demonstrates its original direction, and that it was begun from the east; for the turn of the river at Greenwich intercepts it, though not observed in maps: so the way is forced to deflect a little southward there, and then recovers its point: beyond that hill it is very straight as far as the Ken reaches. On Black heath a vast tumulus, now used as a butt for archers, hereabouts in great request till Henry the VIIIthï¿½s time and hence the name of Shooters hill. *A brass Roman lar dug up about Grosvenor square (in possession of Mr Benpre Bell) near where the Roman road ran the Watling street. Notes Lock Hospital was closed in 1760. The site is now covered by the junction of Tabard Street and Great Dover Street. Vicinal: neighbouring, adjacent, local.

This description of the route fits perfectly with my model and was able to explain why I had been unable to trace the road in the Greenwich area. However, since knowing that it deviated south I have found two more indications of it in Greenwich and at Deptford and it does indeed deviate to the south and crossed Deptford Creek to the north of the present Creek Road, SE8. I have also been trying to find out where it went north of the Thames, this has always been a mystery as all traces of it are supposed to have vanished at Marble Arch, where the Edgware Road meets the roman Oxford Street. However by extending the alignment of Edgware road and searching along this imaginary line I have been able to practically 'see' it running parallel and slightly to the east of Park Lane under the streets of present-day Mayfair (see photo). I can't believe how anyone could have missed something so obvious, it also confirms Stukeley's observations. This is looking down Brick street from Down Street, W1 This is another view. I have been looking for evidence of exactly how the two roads originally joined but ironically, the method I am using works best in built-up areas.

However the railings between Piccadilly and Green Park are distorted where the road would be expected to be and although the effect is subtle it nevertheless suggests that the road continued into Green Park. Piccadilly. I have found possible indications of the road in St James's Park although they are too faint to be totally reliable. Possible traces of Stukeley's road, however, can still be seen near Westminster Abbey. Storey's Gate, SW1 Iï¿½m still not sure of the exact details of how Watling Street crossed the Thames at Westminster but I now think that the Westminster ford was purpose built for Watling Street in order to keep the road as straight as possible - to preserve the alignment. Watling Street in the Greenwich area Probably the most compelling piece of evidence for the existence of a straight Watling Street in South London is the Old Dover Road, SE3. I was born near here and I have always assumed it to be Roman but apparently it is not universally believed to be part of Watling Street.

I was told by the Greenwich local studies library that once a Royal Commission had been set up to look into the origins of this humble little road and they decided that it wasnï¿½t Roman*, but many people do think that it is Roman these days including Channel 4's Time Team. *Actually they may have been more correct than they realised, see Pre-Roman 'Roman' Roads Watling Street in north Kent is remarkable for being exceptionally straight, like many, but by no means all Roman roads and follows a series of unusually long uninterrupted straight alignments. What is remarkable is how few of these alignments have been used in this stretch of Watling Street, far fewer than is typical for a Roman road in Britain, or indeed practical. Initially I guessed that the reason for this would have been to impress either foreign visitors as they arrived in Britain, or, as it was likely to have been the first (or one of the first) long straight Roman roads to be built - to impress the natives a type of showing off perhaps. But even if this is fancyful its extreme straightness should make it easy to follow and if it deviated at all it would have to be for a good reason.

The final alignment before it reached the London area starts near Spring Head, Swanscombe Park, Kent best known now for the Bluewater shopping centre near by and continued in a virtually perfect straight line untill the east of Greenwich, deviating only very slightly when fording rivers at Dartford and Crayford. However, as it reaches Greenwich it does something remarkable, it veers sharply to the south west to cross Blackheath. Although this road appears straight this is a modern rebuilding, the old maps show it crossing the heath in a distinctly winding way, and follows the parish boundaries, usually a good indicator of Roman roads, which show it to have been build in a series of short but straight alignments, quite different from the rest of Watling Street. However, I have no doubt that this road is Roman as it was still visible in the eighteenth century, but it is not, I believe, the earliest version of the road. The Old Dover Road is a small stump of a road, less than a mile long, situated to the east of Greenwich Park, it clearly continues the original alignment of Watling Street for almost another mile.

It is rumoured that in the late 1960s when the Blackwall Tunnel approach road was being excavated, amateur archaeologists found the remains of the original Watling Street even further to the west, nearer London, although so far, I have not been able to trace them or their findings. This road is so obviously part of Watling Street it is difficult to believe anyone could think otherwise. This is a close-up of the Old Dover Road (top left) where it meets Shooters Hill Road forming a convincing straight section with Watling Street. On this map of 1894 it is even called Watling Street, this is a close-up for clarity, the continuous alignment is even more obvious on a larger map. The road would have continued into Greenwich Park to directly pass the remains of the Roman temple (as featured on Time Team), just to its north and is probably represented by a V shaped notch at the edge of the temple site.

This notch is probably modern as the park was formally and extensively landscaped in the 17th century and straight avenues were built obliterating any features, although intriguingly the avenue in this part of the park seems to have stopped at the temple site so the notch could be original (although it doesn't seem wide enough) or it may have been cut in the early 20th century at the same time as the temple was discovered in what might have been an attempt to find the missing road. I believe the reason for a temple being here is undoubtedly because of the amazing view over the London area, the view is somewhat spoilt now as trees have been allowed to grown up, but in Roman times it could have had a view very similar to the one today slightly further along, at Wolfeï¿½s statue, overlooking the Queen's House. However, if the road is confirmed as being here this effectively makes the temple a roadside shrine, and it would also have looked very dramatic from the road. The descent down the hill at Greenwich at this point is remarkably even and gentle and is well chosen as parts of the hill at Greenwich are precipitously steep.

The road at this point is no longer following the true alignment but is a slight detour to the south, just as Stukeley observed, and this would give the builders a certain amount of latitude about where the road could best be sited. Continuing down from the temple site, the road passes to the right of what is probably a natural gully and it is here that the gravel surface of the road (if I am correct) is visible. Although there is no trace of an agger here (the typical ridge-like appearance of a Roman road) there is evidence that this part of the park has been landscaped and it is likely that the original road had been buried. However, a ï¿½naturalï¿½ path has developed and for a considerable length the grass has worn through showing fine gravel over a very compacted layer of courser gravel and stones (this may only recently happened due to the dry summers we have been having). I have shown a colleague who has had experience digging Roman roads, he said it was a typical Roman road surface, however without being able to see the compete agger he was unable to confirm that it was indeed Roman.

He did agree, however, that because there was a piece of red sandstone firmly embedded in it, which is not a locally occurring stone, then it must be man-made. He also confirmed that there was another probable Roman road, this time with the agger complete, in another part of the park and although this is aligned in completely the wrong direction to be Watling Street it may have something to do with the suspected Roman fort near by. This is the view from the bottom of the hill looking up towards the Roman Temple, the exposed gravel is directly in the centre of the photo. The road would have then crossed the lawn diagonally in front of the Queenï¿½s House, a modern path representing the route. This is supposed historically to be the site of the road see... London's Longest Roads And Where They Lead To | Londonist London's Longest Roads And Where They Lead To By M@ Last edited 58 months ago M@ London's Longest Roads And Where They Lead To Did you know that Selfridges is on the same road as the Brecon Beacons? That you can see the Scottish Parliament from a road that passes through Islington?

Or that you can walk directly from Lambeth North to Brighton Pier without setting foot on more than one road? Then there is the blessed junction outside St Paul's Tube station, where roads from two different countries meet. Head west along the A40 (beginning on Newgate) and you'll eventually reaches Wales. Choose the northern route past the Museum of London, and you can get into Scotland without leaving the A1. Welcome to the surprising world of London's A-roads. We tracked a few of the more interesting ones down to their final destinations (with a lot of help from Google Maps and Street View). The A1: Take Upper Street to another country Upper Street in Islington is really badly named. It's actually part of the lower 0.5% of the A1, which stretches all the way up to Edinburgh. This most famous of A-roads begins at St Paul's and travels up past the Museum of London, along St John Street, through Islington and along Holloway and Archway Roads and then onwards past Welwyn and Stevenage to the north. Eventually reaching Edinburgh, the final stretches of Britain's longest route adopt the name London Road. Total length: 410 miles.

The A2: Take the Old Kent Road to Dover The A2 , as Old Kent Road is more prosaically known, begins at Borough Tube station as Great Dover Street. It is indeed old and Kentish, forming the southern part of the Roman Watling Street down to Canterbury and Dover. Its London sections pass through New Cross, Deptford and Blackheath before climbing Shooters Hill. There, the A2 dips down into Kidbrooke and Eltham on modern roads, but you can still follow the original Roman route by carrying on east on a dead-straight line through Welling and Crayford ( A207 ). The two routes recombine near Bluewater before heading off into deepest Kent. Total length: 72 miles. The A3: Take Borough High Street till you reach Portsmouth Instead of heading east at Borough Tube, you might instead go south, down the A3 , which eventually reaches Portsmouth. Along the way, it is variously known as Borough High Street, Newington Causeway, Kennington Park Road, Clapham High Street, Wandsworth High Street, Kingston Road and much else besides. Total length: 78 miles.

The A4: Take Fleet Street as far as Bristol Call it the A4, and you have an unmemorable traffic route. Call it Fleet Street, Strand, Pall Mall, Piccadilly, Knightsbridge and Brompton Road, and you have some of the most famous streets in the world. This most notable of roads also comprises Cromwell Road (home of the V&A and Natural History Museum), the embattled Hammersmith Flyover, and the Great West Road before heading out to Bath and Bristol, flirting the whole way, and occasionally commingling, with the M4. Total length: 130 miles. The A5: Take Edgware Road...to Anglesey Edgware Road and its northern continuations are perhaps the most obviously Roman route in London, heading in a perfectly straight line, save for an Elstree kink, all the way out beyond the M25. This is the northern stretch of Watling Street, the Anglo-Saxon name for the old Roman route out to the Welsh borders. Today, as the A5 , it ventures as far as Holyhead in north-west Wales, although it briefly loses its name (becoming the A5183) just outside London.

Total length: 260 miles. The A10: Take Bishopsgate up to the Norfolk coast One of the main thoroughfares through the ancient City of London, Bishopsgate formed part of Ermine Street, a Roman road that once led up to York (Eboracum). Sometimes called the Old North Road, it remains one of the straightest roads in London, beginning at Monument station, passing up through Bishopsgate, Shoreditch High Street and Kingsland Road, then on through Dalston, Stokey, Tottenham and Edmonton. Were you to follow the A10 (as it's officially designated) to its conclusion, you'd pass through Cambridge before coming to an end in King's Lynn, Norfolk. Total length: 161 miles. The A13: Take Commercial Road out to some Essex mudflats The A13 leads out from Whitechapel to Southend and Shoeburyness, whisking beachhut-hunting Londoners through many areas of industry and marshy desolation. You'd think there wasn't much more to say about this estuarine highway. You'd be wrong . Total length: 41 miles.

The A23: Take Kennington Road down to Brighton A single road connects Lambeth North Tube station to Brighton Pier. The A23 , as it's now known, is another old Roman road, a fact that becomes readily apparent if you follow its largely straight course on a map. Within London, the A23 follows Kennington Road, Brixton Road and Streatham Hill, before heading down through Norbury and Croydon. It then picks up speed by joining the M23 before relaxing back to its A-status on its way down to the coast. Total length: 52 miles. The A40: Take Oxford Street...all the way to Wales You guessed it, Oxford Street leads to Oxford. But it will also take you to Cheltenham, Gloucester and over the Brecon Beacons to Fishguard in Wales. The stretch known as Oxford Street is about a mile and a half long, although the distance can seem much greater on a Saturday afternoon. This is one of the capital's oldest thoroughfares, following the line of an ancient Roman road that led to Colchester in the east and Hampshire in the west. Today, it's also known as the A40 .

Within London, it begins just north of St Paul's, runs over Holborn Viaduct and along Holborn and New Oxford Street, along Oxford Street, then north to the Westway, Western Avenue and the M40, and thence on to Wales. In days gone by, the A40 took the more satisfyingly straight route of continuing west from Marble Arch along Bayswater Road and Uxbridge Road, running along what is now the A4020. Total length: 256 miles. Last Updated 07 March 2012 610 Old Kent Road, London | Archaeology 610 Old Kent Road, London View More Wessex Archaeology in London was engaged by Zaks Ltd to undertake an archaeological watching brief during the machine excavation of trenches for poured concrete foundations at the former Cockneys Public House, 610 Old Kent Road, in the London Borough of Southwark, centred on NGR 534250/177750. Remains dating to the Romano-British and post-medieval periods were revealed during an archaeological evaluation of the Site by Wessex Archaeology in January 2006.

This uncovered a series of intercutting Romano-British pits, east of several ditches and a number of post holes. Old Kent Road is known to follow the line of Roman Watling Street on its approach from Dover to London and the evaluation report suggested that the quarry pits represented gravel quarrying for construction and refurbishment of the nearby road. The watching brief revealed a series of shallow pits similar to those found during the earlier evaluation. These were undated but were probably the result of gravel extraction associated with the construction or repair of Roman Watling Street to the north as had been concluded during the evaluation. Medieval material was conspicuously absent from the Site and there was no evidence that the Site was subjected to horizontal truncation. Rather, the Roman levels were overlain by deposits indicative of the Site being an open area for some considerable time prior to dumping and levelling in advance of the construction of the now demolished public house (The Cockneys). Copyright: © All Rights Reserved Monopoly: The Pubs of Old Kent Road | London Pubology Monopoly: The Pubs of Old Kent Road Posted on 28 March 2010 | 19 Comments Welcome back! Happy new year 2010!

Apologies for the long absence. I thought I’d try starting a series of posts based on the Monopoly Board. (At my current pace, this should take me a few years at least, though some of the locations may not require particularly substantial entries.) Of all the properties name-checked on the canonical (London) Monopoly board,1 only one of them lies south of the River Thames, and it’s the one that has seen probably the most change over the last three-quarters of a century since that game was created. Of course, the Old Kent Road has always been a major thoroughfare and has changed greatly since it is first recorded, as part of the Roman road Watling Street,2 but the twentieth century in particular has seen a vast amount of post-World War II rebuilding. Vast tracts of it are now taken up by council estates and huge branches of familiar retail chains like Tesco, Toys R Us, PC World, B&Q, Halfords and Asda. Figure 68. The Lord Nelson (Walworth SE1).

To a certain extent this reflects rebuilding after wartime bombing, but it is also due to the flight of industry from the centre of London which had started happening even before then and has moved on progressively over the last century. One of the great lost rail termini of London was sited at the top of the Old Kent Road, Bricklayers’ Arms, and after an initial, abortive, attempt to compete with London Bridge station for passengers (Bricklayers’ Arms was opened in 1844 but closed to passenger traffic in 1852), it settled down for the remainder of its existence as a goods depot, meaning that many industries set up along the Old Kent Road and around the Bricklayers’ Arms terminus in Bermondsey.

By the time it closed in 1983, most of the industrial works had long since moved out, leaving large tracts of bleak space, the remains of gasworks and other heavy industry, and a pall of underdevelopment.3 Efforts have been made at regeneration, of course, the most notable being the reclamation of much of the bombed land west of the Old Kent Road as a vast new open space, Burgess Park.4 With respect to this blog’s focus of interest, an 1878 text (available online), Old and New London by Edward Walford,5 includes the following passage about the Old Kent Road, which is instructive in just how much the road has changed: The most noticeable feature in the Old Kent Road is the number of public-houses, each with its swinging sign and drinking-trough for horses. Walford then goes on to mention a number of hostelries: The Kentish Drovers; The Thomas à Becket; The Shard Arms; and The World Turned Upside Down.

None of these pubs is any longer open for business, although, rather surprisingly, the buildings of three of them still exist in some form.6 Of course, this was just a fraction of the total number which once ran the length of the road. The Dead Pubs website, an excellent resource, lists 39 drinking establishments, which I’ve listed in an appendix at the end for reference. Remaining Pubs Currently, there are only two pubs still trading on Old Kent Road. There are, in addition, a number of bars (not to mention bar/restaurants), though it can be difficult to get a sense of whether some of these are still in business, as many open late in the evenings or for occasional events only and give every appearance of not being in business (such as Virgo’s , Walworth SE1, or Clear Spirit Vodka Bar & Lounge , Peckham SE15). The two remaining pubs are The Lord Nelson (Walworth SE1, fig. 68) [see update below], around halfway down, and The Breffni Arms (Peckham SE15, fig. 11 ), towards the far, New Cross end of the road.

Both pub buildings are impressive examples of Victorian pub building, with the latter a particularly striking example. Closed Pubs More impressive yet is The Thomas à Becket (Walworth SE1, fig 69). This landmark pub, latterly a boxing gym and now a gallery, stood on the old coaching road to Kent (hence Old Kent Road), named after a famous pilgrim who travelled this stretch of road to Canterbury. It was a well-used break on travellers’ journeys, as it stood by a crossing of the (now buried) River Neckinger,7 and the spot was thus known as St Thomas à Waterings. Figure 69. The Thomas à Becket (Walworth SE1), now closed [though since reopened]. Of course, like many other pubs on this road, it has long since closed. However, its sizable presence along with The Green Man (Walworth SE1) and The Dun Cow (Bermondsey SE1), demonstrates well the former prominence of public houses in this part of London.

The only other surviving pub buildings from the Victorian era are the comparatively modest The Duke of Kent (Bermondsey SE1), now a mosque, and The Kentish Drovers and Halfway House (Peckham SE15), though the latter still sports a rather striking mural depicting travellers in times past. As part of the modern A2, the road is still used heavily for travel, it’s just that few anymore feel the need to stop here. Update (March 2012): It should be noted that since this post was written, it seems that The Lord Nelson pub has closed. However, The Thomas à Becket has reopened as a pub. Footnotes: [1] As you know, the original 1935 Monopoly board was based on properties in Atlantic City, USA, though the British version followed very shortly after, going into production in 1936. [2] These days “streets” do not tend to traverse most of the southern half of a country, but that is what the original Roman road did.

The Old Kent Road is just a very small section of what originally extended from Dover to Wroxeter, and which in London also takes in Edgware Road and the section of it in the City which still bears its original name. [3] Much of the land taken up by the old railway lines through South Bermondsey has already been reclaimed for housing developments. [4] Work began in 1950 on what was then North Camberwell Open Space, and has continued for most of the 20th century, including the opening of a new recreational lake in 1982. The line of the old Grand Surrey Canal, which was finally closed in 1971 and then drained, has been incorporated into the park, with one branch of it forming a pleasant pedestrian and cycle path from Camberwell right up to Peckham Library. Information about the park is taken from Andrew Crowe, The Parks and Woodlands of London (1987), pp. 74-76. [5] The six volumes are available on the British History website . The quoted passage is from this section on the Old Kent Road.

[6] The one no longer extant is The Shard Arms, at the corner of Peckham Park Road, which was demolished in the 1990s and replaced by a residential development. See Appendix for more information about the individual pubs. [7] I took this information from the otherwise exceptional Russ Willey, Chambers London Gazetteer (Edinburgh: Chambers, 2006), but Diamond Geezer ‘s information (along with that on Wikipedia) suggests that this was not in fact the River Neckinger but presumably another minor tributary now long-lost. Appendix. List of Old Kent Road pubs. WEST SIDE Notify me of new comments via email. Welcome! This is the London Pubology blog, very slowly dedicating itself to all things in the intersection of PUB and LONDON. For lists of pubs by postcode area, visit my London Pubology site . Follow @pubologyblog I have another blog of my film reviews over at Ewan at the Cinema . NOTE: Please be aware that this blog is unaffiliated with pubology.com and was set up in ignorance of this other fine site of the same name. To distinguish the two, I have slightly renamed my own blog "London Pubology".

Many apologies to the (late) creator of this site, and to his friends and family. Follow Blog Enter your e-mail address to follow 'London Pubology' and receive notifications of new posts. You won't get many e-mails. Categories Old Kent Road | London Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Share The Old Kent Road is a road in South East London, and forms part of Watling Street , the Roman road which ran from Dover to Holyhead. The street is famous as the equal cheapest property on the London Monopoly board and as the only one in South London More information on the Wikipedia page [1] Welcome to Old Kent Road Guide Woolwich Roman period C1 Watling Street built by the Romans to connect Dover to London via Canterbury and on to Holyhead, Wales Medieval Period Now known as Kent Street (now Tabard Street). It adjoined Borough High Street. C15? Pilgrims to shrine of Becket at Canterbury Cathedral stopped to water horses at stream on Old Kent Road on Walworth Common. Place was known as St Thomas a Watering (now Thomas a Becket pub). 1415 Clergy of London met Henry V at St Thomas a Watering after his victory at Agincourt.

Tudor period 1539 Vicar of Wandsworth & others hung drawn & quartered at St Thomas a Watering for denying Henry VIII’s supremacy over Rome in matters of faith in England. Stuart period 1660 Charles II returned to London via the Kent Road on his restoration Georgian period Became known as Kent Road 1740 Last use of gallows at St Thomas a Watering 1750 Old Westminster Bridge built. Led to new roads to Elephant. 1751 Turnpike Trust upgraded a local footpath into New Kent Road 1789 Paragon by Michael Searles 1796 Surrey Square built by by Michael Searles off Kent Road (circa) World Turned Upside Down established (145 Old Kent Road) (circa) Kentish Drovers established 1807 Deaf and Dumb Asylum founded (68b Old Kent Road) Regency period 1811 Surrey Canal opened- crossed Kent Road at Canal Bridge 1827 Licensed Victuallers' Asylum founded 1831 Lizzie Siddell moved to area with her family. Later to model for `Rossetti.

1833 South Metropolitan Gas works at Old Kent Road began. Coal supplied by canal. Victorian period 1837 Cary’s map of London 1838 Christ Church built on Ruby Street North of Old Kent Road. 1844 Bricklayers Arms railway station opened 1845 Glengall Road built. 1852 Bricklayers Arms railway station closed. Replaced by engine sheds. 1856 Old Dun Cow opened (279 Old Kent Road). Gin palace with several rooms. 1861 Horse drawn Trams 1866 Old Kent Road railway station opened on South London Line (by current railway bridge) 1868 Old Christ Church closed to make way for new gas works New Christ Church opened on South side of Old Kent Road 1871 East London Line linked with South London Line (closed in 1966)..

Ordnance Survey map of Old Kent Road order now 1877 Kent Street renamed Tabard Street 1890 Livesey Museum opened 1891 Albert Chevalier wrote Music Hall number Knock'd Em In The Old Kent Road 1894 Ordnance Survey map of Old Kent Road order now Modern period 1910 Old Kent Road Picture Palace 42-44 Old Kent Road. 1,450 seats Picture House closed 1956. ADRIFT — Keeping your feet dry: Roman Roads and the London Landscape Keeping your feet dry: Roman Roads and the London Landscape Roman Roads are supposed to be straight, right? Well, yes, and generally they were - but in fact, the Romans surveyed their famous roads in discrete sections; tweaking and deviating their courses around problematic features in the landscape as they went. I’ve come across a few examples of this practice in my investigations of the landscape of London - some probably well known, others on the speculative side. Let’s start with Watling Street, the archetypal Roman Road.

Built over an earlier Celtic trackway, Watling Street stretched an incredible distance from Dover to Wroxeter via Canterbury, St Albans and a host of other important Roman cities and forts. North of the Thames, Watling Street follows the ruler-straight route of Kilburn High Road, Maida Vale and Edgware Road, and originally crossed the River at Westminster. (After the establishment of the Roman City of London, Watling Street was diverted east at Marble Arch; the older route south towards Westminster ford is lost, but possibly terminated at the ‘toot hill’, now Tothill Fields.) South of the Thames, it’s harder to pick up the course of Watling Street. This is, I believe, partly to do with the very different geology of South London, which is dominated by a swathe of alluvium [marked in blue on my map]. If we start in the East, we know that Watling Street ran in a straight line from Dartford to Shooter’s Hill, before descending the steep slopes of Blackheath/Greenwich Park, and crossing the River Ravensbourne near Deptford ('deep ford’) Bridge.

It’s at this point that, rather like Marble Arch, the road was diverted away from its original course, now lost towards Westminster (more on that in a bit) and led North-East to London via New Cross Road, Old Kent Road and Great Dover Street. But the Road between these two fords at Deptford and London does not follow a straight line from point to point: it appears to make at least two small deviations, suggesting that the Roman surveyors were navigating an inconvenient landscape. If you compare the route of this section of Watling Street with the geological survey, the reasons become clear. A straight line between Deptford Bridge and London would have meant crossing a large area of low-lying alluvium/marshland in what is now South Bermondsey [this line marked by dotted line]. This marsh, which on my map resembles an inlet, is probably associated with a lost watercourse - either the Peck from Peckham, or Earl’s Sluice from Denmark Hill. Instead, the Roman Road stays on the hard gravel of the river terraces, masterfully skirting the wet areas to the east.

I should also mention here that Watling Street did not actually terminate at the modern London Bridge, but further south (the junction at Borough Tube to be precise). Again, if we turn to the geological map, we can see clearly that the fording of the Thames really started here, making use of the Southwark eyots like stepping stones. Crossing any further east than Borough would have meant navigating a more difficult stretch. It’s almost impossible to delineate the course of the original (pre-London) Watling Street between Deptford and the crossing at Westminster, although some fascinating work has been done by John Chaple , who writes extensively on the ancient landscape of London on his website. This brings me onto another interesting geological feature, which I believe may have determined the course of the Roman Roads in this area. John believes that the 'old’ Watling Street was diverted through the Elephant & Castle area, specifically underneath the Rockingham Estate. I believe this to be unlikely because the geological survey reveals this area to be dominated by a large peat bog.

Known as the Rockingham Anomaly, this peat-filled depression is believed to be a relict pingo and might once have been a small lake or marshy pool - not impossible to cross (as John as pointed out to me), but certainly undesirable. Whilst I’m unschooled on the exact course of Watling Street east of Westminster, I do know that another Roman Road in London was clearly diverted around this boggy patch. Take a look at Stane Street, the road from Chichester in Sussex, and you’ll see it leads in a dead straight line towards London along the modern Clapham and Kennington Park Roads. But mysteriously along Newington Causeway (the name is a clue…) it curves gently but clearly to the west, before returning to its course. The map shows that the route of Stane Street is avoiding the boggy ground of the Rockingham Anomaly. One further speculation. At Kennington Park, an ancient gathering place, Stane Street was joined by another Roman Road - the way to Portchester via Streatham, Croydon and so on. Brixton Hill and Brixton Road are believed to follow its route.

But if you look closely you’ll see there is a deviation to the west at Brixton itself, moving the Portchester Road away from its direct alignment with London and towards the convergence at Kennington. It’s possible the nearby River Effra had something to do with this, or some other geological consideration. But look at the original alignment closely [marked as dotted line] and you’ll see it passes through - you guessed it - the Rockingham Anomaly. These examples - at Watling Street, Stane Street and Portchester Road - all show Roman engineers adapting their famous straight lines to a riverine landscape of bogs and marshland, a landscape that has all but disappeared underneath the modern city.

Question: The Old Kent Road in London follows the line of which Roman road ?
Answer: WATLING STREET