In 1600 John Parr - who was embroiderer to Elizabeth I - built one such mansion, where Werter Road joins the High Street.

A Sainsbury's supermarket now stands where its garden was.

Arguably the most famous pair of feet to walk the thoroughfare belonged to Oliver Cromwell.

His New Model Army landed in August 1647, leading to the famous Putney Debates at St Mary's Church (then the Church of St Mary the Virgin).

By the late 1650s a ferry crossing was well established, which started a growth of a number of other shops in the area, including pubs.

It was about this time many of the wooden houses were rebuilt in stone - attracting more of the rich and upwardly mobile, and the relative wealth of the area created growing pressure for a permanent river crossing.

Putney Bridge was finally built in 1729 - it was then the only bridge between London Bridge and Kingston Bridge and today carries more traffic than any other bridge across London - and it was warmly welcomed by all except the ferrymen it put out of work.

The Victorians brought the arrival of the railways, closely followed by an army of commuters.

Between 1831 and 1911 Putney's population increased by 750 per cent and to cope with the massive influx Putney Station opened in 1846 and a new Putney Bridge was constructed in 1885 - paving the way for an improvement to the very popular horse-bus services along the river into town.

And for the last 100 years the High Street has stayed mainly the same - the shop faces changing periodically with fashion and fortune.

One incident that would have changed the street’s character was one Memory Lane readers may recall.

in January 27, 1975, The Provisional IRA planted a bomb on the High Street - one of a eight bombs the group planted that day.

Six exploded but two were defused - one in Hampstead and one in Putney. The one in Putney just two minutes before detonation.

So next time you are down the High Street and are battling to get from one side to the other, try to relax and think about how the road would have been years ago - and take comfort from the fact that even the Saxons, Victorians and Vikings - fully armed - would also struggle trying to negotiate the Saturday shoppers of today.