Old Kent Road Old Kent Road Old Kent Road is a major thoroughfare in South East London, England, passing through the London Borough of Southwark. It was originally part of an ancient trackway that was paved by the Romans and used by the Anglo-Saxons who named it Wæcelinga Stræt (Watling Street). It is now part of the A2, a major road from London to Dover. The road was important in Roman times linking London to the coast at Richborough and Dover via Canterbury. It was a route for pilgrims in the Middle Ages as portrayed in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, when Old Kent Road
Roman Road, London Roman Road – and all the shop and house numbers were changed accordingly. The Roman Road was a centre of Suffragette activity. The headquarters of the East London Federation of Suffragettes, where Sylvia Pankhurst lived, was at 400 Old Ford Road. The Federation did much to help local people, providing food and work. There were many home grown suffragettes such as Mrs Savoy, a brushmaker, who was one of the Deputation of East End women to Downing Street in 1914. Sylvia Pankhurst wrote on Mr Savoy's death: ‘The streets of Old Ford are colder and greyer with her loss’. The