Old Kent Road a Celtic ancient trackway that was paved by the Romans and recorded as Inter III on the Antonine Itinerary. The Anglo-Saxons named it "Wæcelinga Stræt" (Watling Street). It joined Stane Street another ancient and Roman road at Southwark before crossing the Thames at London Bridge. The Inter III was one of the most important Roman roads in Britain, linking London with Canterbury and the Channel ports at Richborough ("Rutupiae"); Dover ("Dubris") and Lympne ("Lemanis"). Pilgrims, as documented in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, travelled along the road from London and Southwark on their way to Canterbury. In 1415, the road was a
Roman Road, London giving 269 dwellings, grouped amid landscaping and named after naval destroyers. This is the Lanfranc Estate which runs along the Roman Road. The Victorian houses which survived continued to provide private rented and owner occupied housing, but much was in poor repair. In 1975, the area around Chisenhale Road became the Driffield General Improvement Areas where all property was to be modernised. The council's greatest challenge by the 1970s came from its own estates – 'cramped, unlovely and unloved'. Not only did the older ones need refurbishment but the newer were plagued by vandalism in tower blocks, or by defects