History - Week Street, Maidstone

Week Street lies on the line of the Roman Road linking the Roman town at Rochester (Durobrivae) with the ironworking areas of the Weald and the port of Lympne (Portvs Lemanis). There has long been speculation that the name of the street is a corruption of the Latin term “vicus”, denoting a small town.  However, no specific evidence of such a Roman town has been forthcoming, although the possible foundations of a Roman building were found in the 1960’s during building works at the junction of Week Street and King Street.  There were certainly a significant number of villas in the Maidstone area, and many Romano-British burials have been found to the west of Week Street and across the Medway in Westborough. 

Week Street was used as a basis for setting out the apparently planned Medieval town centre development, and exhibits in places, where comprehensive redevelopment has not taken place, the typical narrow frontage of medieval burgage plots – parcels of land laid out and let on attractive terms to tradesmen coming to settle in the town, who could exchange or sell them freely without the agreement of the manorial lord.  Week Street was probably originally overshadowed commercially by the High Street but by the 1850’s, Week Street was becoming more important, and the trend for the key shops to move there continued into recent decades making Week Street the prime shopping street of the town centre.