The site where Downing Street now stands rose to importance
early in British history. Settlement by the Romans, Anglo Saxons
and Normans made the area around today’s Westminster a
prestigious centre of government over 1000 years ago. Location,
location, location Thorney Island – ‘the island of thorns’ – was
a marshy piece of land lying between two branches of the river
Tyburn that flowed from Hampstead Heath down to the Thames. The
land was boggy, creating problems for building which persist
today, but it did have an ideal position. A ford across the
river Thames joined the Roman road from Kent near where
Westminster Bridge now stands, creating good transportation
links. For that reason, the Romans chose Thorney Island as a
good place to settle, and the area began to develop. Traces of
these Roman and later Saxon buildings have been found within the
grounds of Number 10. The early settlements were not very
successful. The area was prone to plague and its inhabitants
were very poor. A document of the Mercian K