Editing Mayfair (section)

===Early history===
Following analysis of the alignment of Roman roads, it has been speculated that the Romans settled in the area before establishing [[Londinium]].{{sfn|Weinreb|Hibbert|Keay|Keay|2008|p=494}} ''[[Whitaker's Almanack]]'' suggested that [[Aulus Plautius]] built a fort here during the [[Roman conquest of Britain]] in AD 43 while waiting for [[Claudius]].<ref name=Almanack>{{cite book |title=Whitaker's Almanack |publisher=Joseph Whitaker |date=1994 |chapter=Roman Mayfair |page=1118 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=htTu86RbfhsC&q=mayfair}}</ref> The theory was developed in 1993, with a proposal that a town grew outside the fort but was later abandoned as it was too far from the River Thames.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sole |first=Bill |title=Metropolis in Mayfair? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIZnAAAAMAAJ&q=Mayfair |journal=The London Archaeologist |volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=122–126 |date=1992}}</ref> The proposal has been disputed because of lack of archaeological evidence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clark |first1=John |last2=Sheldon |first2=Harvey |title=Londinium and Beyond: Essays on Roman London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S3UgAQAAI1AJ&q=mayfair |publisher=David Brown Book Company |date=30 November 2008 |pages=104 |isbn=978-1-902771-72-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Fuentes |first=Nicholas |title=The Plautian invasion base |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIZnAAAAMAAJ&q=Metropolis+in+Mayfair%3F |journal=The London Archaeologist |volume=7 |pages=238 |date=1992}}</ref> If there was a fort, it is believed the perimeter would have been where the modern [[Green Street, Mayfair|Green Street]], North Audley Street, [[Upper Grosvenor Street]] and Park Lane now are, and that Park Street would have been the main road through the centre.<ref name=Almanack /> This area was the manor of [[Eia]] in the [[Domesday Book]], and owned by [[Geoffrey de Mandeville (11th century)|Geoffrey de Mandeville]] after the [[Norman Conquest]]. It was subsequently given to the Abbey of Westminster, who owned it until 1536 when it was taken over by King [[Henry VIII]] during the [[dissolution of the monasteries]].<ref name=sol39_1 />

Mayfair consisted mainly of open fields until development began in the [[Shepherd Market]] area around 1686–88 to accommodate the May Fair, which had moved from [[Haymarket, London|Haymarket]] in [[St James's]] because of overcrowding.{{sfn|Weinreb|Hibbert|Keay|Keay|2008|p=535}} There were some buildings before 1686. A cottage in Stanhope Row, dating from 1618, was destroyed in [[the Blitz]] in late 1940.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716210428/http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/leisureandculture/greenplaques/ |url-status=dead |title=City of Westminster green plaques |archive-date=16 July 2012}}</ref> A 17th-century [[English Civil War]] fortification established in what is now [[Mount Street, London|Mount Street]] was known as Oliver's Mount by the 18th century.<ref name=sol39_12-13 />