Editing Whitechapel (section)

===Geography of the ancient parish===
Whitechapel's spine is the old Roman Road, that ran from the [[Aldgate]] on [[London Wall|London's Wall]], to [[Colchester]] in [[Essex]] ([[Roman Britain|Roman Britannia's]] first capital), and beyond. This road, which was later named the ''Great Essex Road'', is now designated the [[A11 road (Great Britain)|A11]]. This historic route has the names Whitechapel High Street and Whitechapel Road as it passes through, or along the boundary, of Whitechapel.<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22732 'Stepney: Communications', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 7–13] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928030615/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22732 |date=28 September 2007 }} accessed: 9 March 2007</ref> For many centuries travellers to and from London on this route were accommodated at the many [[coaching inns]] that lined Whitechapel High Street.<ref name="Christopher Hibbert 1983"/>

The area of the parish extended around 1400 metres from the City of London boundary, originally marked by ''Aldgate Bars'' around 180 metres east of the [[Aldgate]] itself, to vicinity of the junction with Cambridge Heath Road where it met the boundaries of [[Mile End]] and [[Bethnal Green]].

The northern boundary included Wentworth Street and parts of Old Montague Street. The parish also included an area around [[Goodman's Fields Theatre|Goodman's Fields]], close to the City and south of St Mary's, the parish church.