Hackney had two major roads during the Tudor period, Ermine Street and Old Street, built by the Romans as thoroughfares into and out of London. It was the responsibility of the local parishioners to maintain these roads, usually by way of a charge, although some parishioners offered their labour instead. During the mid 1500s the main streets of Shoreditch were paved with round cobbles. A gutter would have run down the middle of the road. The wear on the roads was increasing due to 'shod carts' which were carts with iron wheels, as well as the traffic of wooden carts, hooves and feet. John Stow, who lived in London during the Tudor period, objected to the shod carts as their wheels broke the pavements and they were noisy. This period also saw the advent of horse-drawn coaches for rich people, which were a further bane to the parishioners who maintained the roads. The road between Kingsland and Shoreditch in 1641 was so bad that the carriages of King Charles and his family, who were returning from Scotland, could not drive along it.
As well as the two main roads out of London many of the roads that we know today were in existence in Tudor times, including Well Street and Mare Street. (The latter may derive its name from an old English word for boundary, ‘mere’.)
The River Lea was also an important transport route, London was a busy port at this time and the River Lea was a major transport route from Hackney down to the Thames, especially for the movement of heavy loads. Government appointed commissioners controlled it during this time and cuts were introduced to ease its navigation. A cut is a canalised stretch of water used for loading and unloading barges. There was a ferry for pedestrians to cross the river.
In London itself one major event in the Stuart period had a dramatic effect on the roads, the Great Fire of 1666. With three-quarters of the city burnt down, the opportunity arose to improve the streetscape. Although London was for the most part rebuilt to the same medieval layout as it had been, over 100 streets were widened and the area was levelled to some degree. Two new streets were also built, King Street and Queen Street in the City.
The fire also burnt down the wharves that lined the banks of the River Fleet, which flowed from Hampstead, through Kings Cross and Clerkenwell joining the Thames near Blackfriars. After the fire, in a scheme which Sir Christopher Wren contributed to and which cost £51,000, the river was deepened and widened and its banks were lined with brick. Unfortunately the costs of the 'New Canal', as it was named, were so high that tolls were introduced on its completion. The hoped for increase in river traffic never materialised and it was paved over with New Bridge Street in the Georgian period.
As well as the two or three mast caravels that sailed the Thames in the fifteenth century full rigged ships began to appear in the Tudor period, especially after Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the Honourable East India Company in 1600.
Hackney carriages, and early form of taxi, appeared in the late Tudor/Stuart period. Introduced by a former sea captain of Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain Bailey, these were two-seater carriages pulled by two horses, one of which the driver rode.
