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Old November 2nd 03, 08:03 AM posted to uk.transport.london
AstraVanMan AstraVanMan is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2003
Posts: 41
Default London's Lost Roman Road

An interesting read, but I'm not quite convinced about the point of
intersection. Using the 1:50,000 map of East London, the line of
Watling Street from Kent seems to just touch the bank of the Thames at
Greenwich, rather than cross the river as shown on the map on John's
page. Maybe a slight deviation would have been needed, as the river
bank would have been a bit marshy, I'd imagine. Continuing on the same
straight line takes us to the Thames just south of the present
Westminster Bridge, perhaps not far from the horse ferry, after which
Horseferry Road was named.


Well I've just drawn a straight line on Memory-Map, and it just touches the
bank of the Thames at Greenwich, like you say, and if you follow a straight
line from Shooter's Hill Road (I actually started the line from Crook Log in
Bexleyheath), along Old Dover Road, through Greenwich Park and beyond, it
actually ends up at the Northern Roundabout (junction of A40 Westway and the
A3220).

So maybe the Romans had a bit of foresight, and the original route of
Watling St went up to join the Westway, and then all the traffic could head
up the A40/M40/M42/M6/M54 to get up to Holyhead, which means all the
queueing coming out of town up to Savoy Circus on the A40, and around
Birmingham on the M6, was caused by the Romans, and they just built the rest
of the A5 for a laugh :-)

Peter