The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles (16 km) in an almost perfectly straight line.

The southern part of the road between Marble Arch and Maida Vale, noted for its distinct Middle Eastern cuisine and many late-night bars and shisha cafes, is known to Londoners by nicknames such as Little Cairo,[1][2] Little Beirut[3] and, especially near Camden, Little Cyprus.

Before the Romans, today's Edgware Road began as an ancient trackway within the Great Middlesex Forest.

[6] By 1811, Thomas Telford produced a re-design for what was then known as a section of the London to Holyhead road, a redesign considered one of the most important feats of pre-Victorian engineering.

[6] Telford's redesign emerged only a year after the area saw the establishment of Great Britain's first Indian restaurant.

[6] The area began to attract Arab migrants in the late 19th century during a period of increased trade with the Ottoman Empire.

[6] They established the present-day mix of bars and shisha cafes, which make the area known to Londoners by nicknames such as "Little Cairo"[2][7] and "Little Beirut.

A number of schemes have been put forward in the past to construct an Underground railway line underneath Edgware Road, including a plan to extend the Bakerloo line north to Cricklewood and an unusual proposal to build an underground monorail system,[9] but these schemes did not succeed.