The name of Cambridge Heath Road had changed from Cambridge Road in 1938. The road was widened in 1862, 1905 and 1926.
The route from Essex to Smithfield market passed from Mile End along Cambridge (Heath) Road and then along Hackney Road to Shoreditch, bringing ’vast numbers of cattle and many heavy carriages’ which left the roads beyond the ability of Bethnal Green to keep in repair.
Leases of waste along the road in the 16th century included covenants to ’keep the footway well gravelled’. In 1654 Bethnal Green’s highway surveyors were ordered to fill up a gravel pit which they had made in the green.
Bethnal Green was rated with other Stepney hamlets in 1671 to repair the highways and causeways ’in great decay’. By 1671 it was generally accepted that roads built up on both sides should be paved. Paving with stone and gravel was the responsibility of the houses lining the roads – Thomas Street being singled out in 1734.
In 1696 Bethnal Green highway surveyors petitioned that Spitalfields, being small but populous, should contribute towards Bethnal Green’s highways. In 1772 Bethnal Green parish opposed an attempt by Spitalfields to obtain an Act to pave and clean streets in its own and neighbouring parishes, including Brick Lane. By 1848, of more than 400 roads in Bethnal Green, only 14 per cent were classed as granite roadways and 40 per cent had paved footpaths. By 1905 there were 40 miles of streets in the borough. Some of the narrow, cobbled streets, probably late 18th- and early 19th-century were listed by British History Online as remaining in 1988.
In 1738 an Act included the route of Cambridge Road among those administered by the new Hackney turnpike trustees. A turnpike gate was added at Cambridge Heath, at the junction with Hackney Road. The trust’s term and powers were extended in 1753, 1756, 1782, 1802, when tolls were adjusted to cope with the increasing traffic of carts loaded with bricks, and 1821. In 1788, Cambridge Road was still listed as ’dangerous, with the pathways broken and heaps of filth … every 10 or 20 yards’.
In 1826 an Act replaced the trusts with the metropolitan turnpike roads commissioners, whose responsibilities from the start included Cambridge Road. Tollgates were generally closed when the commissioners were abolished in 1863 and responsibility for all roads passed to the local authorities and the Metropolitan Board of Works.
