- The Highway, formerly known as the Ratcliffe Highway, is a mile-long road in the East End of London, with several historic landmarks nearby. The route dates back to Roman times. In the 19th century it had a very notorious reputation for vice and crime and was the site of the infamous Ratcliff Highway murders. The name 'Ratcliffe' literally means 'Red Cliff', referring to the red sandstone cliffs which descended from the plateau on which the road was situated down to the Wapping Marshes to the south.
Location
The Highway runs west-east from the eastern edge of The City to Limehouse. It is parallel-to and south of Commercial Road, the Docklands Light Railway and Cable Street. It connects East Smithfield and the Limehouse Link tunnel.
The road forms an unofficial boundary to Wapping, which lies between the River Thames and The Highway. The road is also close to Shadwell Basin (to the south east), Tower Hill (to the west), and Whitechapel and Stepney (to the north).
The Highway is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in postal district E1. It lies within the parliamentary constituencies of Bethnal Green and Bow and Poplar and Canning Town.
[edit] History
The Ratcliffe Highway was most probably, originally a Roman Road, running east from the City of London along the top of a plateau near the edge of the eponymous 'red cliff' which descended onto the low lying tidal marshes of Wapping to the south.
A Roman bath house was excavated in 2004, by the junction of The Highway and Wapping Lane. The discovery of women's jewellery along with soldiers' possessions, suggests that this location outside of the Roman walls allowed less restricted use of the baths than those in the City itself. The remains of the baths and under-floor heating system were re-buried (for later archaeologists) under the car park of the new flats.
By 1908, Ratcliff Highway had different names for each of its sections. From west to east these ran: "St. George's Street East", "High Street (Shadwell) ", "Cock Hill", "Broad Street. The whole of the central area of The Highway was named after St George in the East church and its parish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Highway Dec 2 2009
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- Bef 1881
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