With over 2,000 years of history, London’s streets tell stories of Roman legions, medieval traders, Tudor monarchs and Georgian silk weavers. While modern steel and glass towers dominate the skyline, you can still walk the same cobblestones that Londoners have trodden for centuries.
This guide takes you to London’s most historic streets, the ones with genuine medieval, Tudor and Georgian heritage. I’ve lived in London for most of my life, and these are the streets where you’ll find the oldest buildings, the most fascinating history and the clearest glimpses into the capital’s past.
Whilst this guide focuses on London’s historically significant streets, check out my guide to London’s most famous streets for contemporary cultural hotspots and shopping destinations.
Where London Began: The City’s Roman and Medieval Streets
The City of London sits where ancient Londinium once stood. Although the main Roman gates – Bishopsgate, Ludgate, Aldgate and Newgate – give their names to major roads today, the original Roman streets themselves are mostly long gone, destroyed by two millennia of building and rebuilding.
1. All Hallows by the Tower: London’s Roman Pavement
In the shadow of the Tower of London, beneath one of the City’s oldest churches, lies something remarkable: a surviving section of Roman pavement.
All Hallows by the Tower dates from 675 AD, making it the oldest church in the City. Take the stairs down to the crypt to see one of London’s few remaining Roman pavements, still intact after nearly 2,000 years.
While you’re here, why not visit the Tower of London? It’s one of London’s most famous landmarks and you can time your visit with the lifting of Tower Bridge, one of the capital’s iconic bridges.
Address: Byward Street, London EC3R 5BJ
Nearest Tube: Tower Hill
2. Pudding Lane: Where London Burned
This narrow street was the site of one of the most catastrophic events in London’s history.
In September 1666, a spark from a bakery oven at 23 Pudding Lane started the Great Fire of London. The blaze tore through the medieval City for four days, destroying 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches and St Paul’s Cathedral. Only one section of the Roman wall and a handful of buildings survived.
The fire’s legacy is marked by The Monument nearby. If you climb its 311 steps, the distance to Pudding Lane is the same as the column’s height.
Nearest Tube: Monument or Bank
3. Threadneedle Street: Medieval Tailors to Modern Banking
Nine streets converge at the Bank junction, and Threadneedle Street is the most famous of them. The street takes its name from its medieval role as the centre of London’s tailoring trade. The Merchant Taylors’ Company has had its hall here since the 14th century.
Today, it’s better known as home to the Bank of England, nicknamed the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, which been there since 1734.
Nearest Tube station: Bank
4. Fleet Street: Medieval London to Press Baron Central
Running from the Strand to Ludgate Circus, Fleet Street has been a major thoroughfare since the Middle Ages. Named after the River Fleet (long since covered over), this was where medieval clergy and businesses first set up shop outside the City walls.
The dragon statues still mark the entrance to the City of London. At number 145, you’ll find Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, one of London’s oldest pubs. Rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire, it’s hosted everyone from Dr Samuel Johnson to Charles Dickens to Mark Twain.
Fleet Street later became synonymous with British newspapers. Although the press barons decamped in the 1980s, the magnificent Art Deco Daily Express building remains.
Nearest Tube: Blackfriars
5. Cloth Fair: Surviving the Great Fire
At 41/42 Cloth Fair stands the oldest house in the City of London, one of the precious few buildings to survive the Great Fire. There are rumours of skeletons in the foundations.
This pretty street is named after the notoriously rowdy Bartholomew Fair, which was the main cloth market in medieval and Elizabethan London. The fair’s reputation for debauchery was legendary.
The street is also home to the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great (often called Great St Bart’s), one of London’s oldest churches, founded in 1123.
Nearest Tube: Barbican
6. Cornhill: Following Roman Footsteps
Cornhill is one of the few streets that still follows its original Roman alignment. The name comes from a medieval corn market that traded here, and it’s been continuously occupied since Roman times.
The street sits on one of London’s two ancient hills (the other being Ludgate Hill), and if you look carefully at the buildings, you’ll spot plaques marking where the Roman basilica and forum once stood.
Nearest Tube: Bank
Spitalfields: The Huguenot Legacy
East of the City, the Spitalfields area is a treasure trove of early Georgian streets. This was settled by French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution from the 1570s onwards. These Protestant refugees established silk-weaving businesses here, and many of their houses survive.
The area later saw waves of Jewish immigrants in the 19th century and the Bangladeshi community from the 1960s, each group leaving its mark on these historic streets.
7. Fournier Street: Georgian Silk Weavers
The 18th-century houses lining the north side of Fournier Street have attics with unusually large windows, designed to let in as much light as possible for silk weavers’ intricate work.
These elegant red-brick Georgian townhouses, built in the 1720s, have been beautifully restored and give you a real sense of how prosperous merchants lived 300 years ago.
Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street or Aldgate East
8. Folgate Street: A Time Capsule
Located at 18 Folgate Street, visiting Dennis Severs’ House is an extraordinary experience.
When American artist Dennis Severs arrived in 1979, the house was derelict. He spent years restoring it to tell the story of an imaginary Huguenot family who lived there from 1724 onwards.
This isn’t a museum in the traditional sense; it’s more like walking through a living painting of 18th-century domestic life. It’s open Sunday to Thursday, and advance booking is essential.
Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street
9. Elder Street: London’s Finest Georgian Terraces
Around the corner from Fournier Street, Elder Street has two of London’s earliest surviving Georgian terraces. Built in the 1720s and painstakingly restored, these red-brick houses are among the finest examples of early Georgian architecture in London.
While you’re here, take a look at neighbouring Fleur de Lys Street for more Georgian elegance.
Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street
10. Artillery Passage: Step Back Three centuries
This narrow passageway, lined with buildings from the early 1700s, shows you what much of London looked like 300 years ago. Some shopfronts are original.
Like neighbouring Gun Street, Artillery Passage takes its name from the Fraternity or Guild of Artillery of Longbows, Crossbows and Handguns, who were given rights by Henry VIII to practice archery on the nearby St Mary Spital’s fields.
At the end of the passage, numbers 56 and 58 Artillery Lane are two fine Georgian houses built in 1705.
Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street
11. Brick Lane: centuries of Immigration
Brick Lane has sheltered waves of immigrants for centuries. Huguenots settled here in the 17th and 18th centuries, followed by the Jewish community, and then the Bangladeshi community from the 1960s onwards.
The street has shops and houses dating from the 18th century, though it’s now better known for its curry houses and its Sunday market. This is also the epicentre of London’s street art scene (a cool thing to do in London is to take a street art walking tour here).
Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street or Aldgate East
12. Princelet Street: Theatre and Immigration
Numbers 6-10 Princelet Street once housed the Hebrew Dramatic Club, a Yiddish theatre founded in 1886. A year later, 17 people were crushed to death during a false fire alarm. The founders, Jacob and Sarah Adler, fled to New York, where they became major figures in theatre and early Hollywood.
19 Princelet Street was founded as the first museum of immigration and diversity in Europe. It’s rarely open to the public but I managed to visit during the annual London Open House event.
Nearest Tube stations: Liverpool Street, Aldgate East or Aldgate
Westminster and Beyond: Power and Elegance
13. Whitehall: A Thousand Years of Power
This broad avenue has been at the heart of English political power for over a millennium. Named after the Palace of Whitehall – Henry VIII’s main residence until it burned down in 1698 – it’s lined with government departments and ministries.
The Cenotaph, Britain’s main war memorial, stands midway down. The Banqueting House, designed by Inigo Jones, is the only surviving part of the original palace.
Nearest Tube: Westminster or Charing Cross
14. Downing Street: Since 1682
Named after Sir George Downing, who built houses here on land he bought near Whitehall Palace, Downing Street dates from the 1680s. Number 10 has been the Prime Minister’s official residence since 1732.
Security gates erected in 1989 now restrict access, but you can glimpse the famous black door from Whitehall. You can also take one of the virtual tours of 10 Downing Street from home.
Nearest Tube: Westminster or Charing Cross
15. The Strand: Where River Met Road
The Strand takes its name from the Old English word for shoreline. Until 1870, when the Victoria Embankment was built, this thoroughfare ran right along the Thames. The name first appeared in records in 1185.
Somerset House, the magnificent Neoclassical complex, houses the Courtauld Gallery. The Savoy Hotel, built in 1889, is one of London’s grandest hotels. And at 216 Strand, Twinings tea shop has been trading since 1706, making it one of the oldest businesses in London still operating from its original premises.
Nearest Tube: Charing Cross, Embankment or Temple
16. Cheyne Walk: Georgian Literary London
Once a riverside promenade (before the Chelsea Embankment was built in 1874), Cheyne Walk’s elegant 18th-century houses are covered in blue plaques celebrating famous residents. George Eliot, Henry James, J.M.W. Turner and Ian Fleming all lived here.
The embankment destroyed some of the street’s charm, but it’s still one of London’s most distinguished addresses.
Nearest Tube: Sloane Square
17. Greek Street: From Refugees to Literati
Named after Greek Christian refugees who settled in Soho in the 17th century, Greek Street runs from Shaftesbury Avenue to Soho Square.
The Coach & Horses pub at the corner of Romilly Street has been here since 1847. It’s legendary for its association with journalist Jeffrey Bernard and Private Eye magazine.
Nearby, the Pillars of Hercules pub (now Bar Hercules) dates from the early 18th century and was a favourite of writers including Clive James, Martin Amis and Ian McEwan.
Nearest Tube: Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road
18. Frith Street: Mozart to Television
Developed in the late 17th century, Frith Street is where Mozart lived between 1764 and 1765. John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television from a building here in 1926.
Bar Italia, a Soho institution since 1949, sits below a blue plaque commemorating Baird’s achievement. This is also one of London’s most famous streets for nightlife and culture.
Nearest Tube: Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road
Walking London’s Historic Streets
London’s oldest streets aren’t museum pieces; they’re living parts of the city. You can walk these cobblestones, touch these walls and follow in the footsteps of Romans, medieval merchants and Georgian silk weavers.
The best way to experience them is simply to wander. Start in one area – perhaps Spitalfields or the City – and let the streets lead you. Look up at the buildings, read the plaques and imagine the centuries of London life that have played out here.
Pull on your most comfortable shoes, grab your camera and go exploring. History is all around you.
About Bridget
Bridget Coleman is a Londoner and has been a passionate traveller for more than 30 years. She has visited 70+ countries, most as a solo traveller.
Articles on this site reflect her first-hand experiences.
To get in touch, email her at hello@theflashpacker.net or follow her on social media.