 During Roman Britain , what is now the Strand was part of the route to Silchester , known as " Iter VIII " on the Antonine Itinerary , and which later became known by the name Akeman Street . It was briefly part of a trading town called Lundenwic that developed around 600 AD , and stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych . Alfred the Great gradually moved the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards , leaving no mark of the old town , and the area returned to fields . 
