Roman roads in London
Londinium was founded around AD 47 as a trading settlement at the lowest bridgeable point of the Thames, and the road network was built to converge on that bridge. Boudica burned the city in AD 60 or 61, leaving the layer of scorched red clay archaeologists still find across the City. Watling Street, Ermine Street, Stane Street and the road west to Silchester all radiate from the crossing, and the modern street plan still preserves their lines: Edgware Road, Bishopsgate and Kennington Park Road are all Roman alignments.
- Mapped segments
- 37
- Surveyed length
- 240 km
- Named roads
- 4
Measured from the Itiner-e survey within the modern county boundary, which for Yorkshire, Cheshire and the other counties broken up in 1974 means the traditional area reassembled from its present-day parts. The survey maps far more road than it attributes to a named route, so the segment count counts everything, and the named roads below are only those with a history recorded here.
Where to see it
The Temple of Mithras is the one to see: displayed beneath a modern office building close to its original site, reconstructed with the light and sound of the cult, and free. The city's Roman collection is between homes — the Museum of London closed in 2022 and its successor, the London Museum, opens at Smithfield in late 2026. Sections of the city wall stand at Tower Hill and near the Barbican, and the amphitheatre's outline is marked in the floor of the Guildhall Art Gallery.
Named roads through London
Watling Street
Rutupiae to Viroconium
Ermine Street
Londinium to Eboracum
Stane Street
Londinium to Noviomagus Reginorum
The Devil's Highway
Londinium to Calleva Atrebatum