 The route of the Strand on the southern boundary of what was to become Covent Garden was used during the Roman period as part of a route to Silchester , known as " Iter VII " on the Antonine Itinerary . Excavations in 2006 at St Martin @-@ in @-@ the @-@ Fields revealed a Roman grave , suggesting the site had sacred significance . The area to the north of the Strand was long thought to have remained as unsettled fields until the 16th century , but theories by Alan Vince and Martin Biddle that there had been an Anglo @-@ Saxon settlement to the west of the old Roman town of Londinium were borne out by excavations in 1985 and 2005 . These revealed Covent Garden as the centre of a trading town called Lundenwic , developed around 600 AD , which stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych . Alfred the Great gradually shifted the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards , leaving no mark of the old town , and the site returned to fields . 
