Editing Watling Street (section)

===Westminster ford===
There is a longstanding tradition{{cn|date=February 2025}} that a natural ford once crossed the Thames between Thorney Island  (present-day [[Westminster]]) and the [[Lambeth]]/[[Wandsworth]] boundary.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pengepast.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/the-lambeth-ford-and-roman-watling-street/ |title=The Lambeth Ford and Roman Watling Street | publisher=Penge Past |first=Martin |last=Spence|date=8 January 2017 }}</ref>{{better source|reason=[[wp:BLOGS]]|date=September 2022}} Its location means that it is possible that Watling Street crossed it.

Several factors may have slowed the river here, leading to the depositing of enough sediments to create a usable ford:<ref>{{cite episode |publisher=Channel Four |series=[[Time Team]] |season=9 |number= 1 |title=Vauxhall: excavation and discussion |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Ldh2ooaUg}}  (from 34:50)</ref> 
* The bend in the Thames near [[Vauxhall Bridge]].
* The two arms of the [[River Effra]] joining in that vicinity, depositing their own load, with the cross-flow causing the Thames to eddy and slow.
* Similarly the southern arm of the [[River Tyburn|Tyburn]], once joined the Thames at this point, on the northern bank.
* These factors mean the area is likely to have been the [[head of tide|tidal head]] for some of the historic period.