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In the case of London, it is a question without easy answer, bound up in the approaches of Londoners and their authorities (regal and mercantile, state and municipal) to the needs of humans in the city. And that, in turn, depends in part on its geology, and the very particular circumstances of an invading force of Romans in the first century AD.

The geology of London

If there were no city, there would be a great tidal flood plain, as the Thames made its way to the sea. It would be maybe five times the width of the current river. One of the meanings of the word ‘strand’ is ‘bank of a river’; the central London thoroughfare known as the Strand, now 200 metres from the river, was named in 1002 as ‘Strondway’ because then the Thames lapped its edges.

The Roman army that Aulus Plautius commanded in AD43 landed in Kent and soon had a beachhead on the south bank of the Thames opposite what is now Westminster. A ford was practical here (it was then, roughly, at the tidal limit) and the army advanced to its first capital in England, Camulodonum, now Colchester in Essex, where it took over a Celtic fortified town. It was soon apparent, however, that the Thames would have to be bridged if supply lines were to be effective. A pontoon bridge in the vicinity of what is now London Bridge was replaced by AD55 by a permanent structure, and on its north bank the Romans started to create a new town from scratch, which by AD120 was known as Londinium.