There are No Roads in London

Here's an interesting nugget of trivia presented by Automologist MAC.

The fact that the City of London has no roads is probably one of the greatest pieces of trivia you will ever know, and of course being a Londoner, I am not a little biased about this. Now, I know many of you will think of the red buses plying their trade along the paved streets of London or our cheeky chappie and his flat cap, steering his black cab around the city. But there are no roads in London, honestly.

Picturesque Goswell Road, not really in London. 

There are plenty of streets, squares, alleys, walks but not a single road. The city of London is strictly just the square mile that was (roughly) contained within the original London Wall and survived for almost two thousand years without having a single thoroughfare called a road. This changed slightly when in 1994, the boundaries were changed slightly and the eastern half of Goswell Road was brought under the charge of the City Council; the western half remained in Islington, where it belongs methinks.

So you may well declare that I am wrong and there is after all a road in London, but I am going to be pedantic here and declare that it is only half a road and thus does not count, so yah boo sucks. The reason for this anomaly of history seems to be quite simple really. The word road did not come into common use in the English language until after the 16th century, long after all of the thoroughfares in the City of London had been named and, thus, there are no roads in London.