Victoria is an area of
Westminster
Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
,
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...
in the
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...
. It is named after
Victoria Station, which is a major transport hub. The station was named after the nearby Victoria Street, opened 1851.
The name is used to describe streets adjoining or nearly adjoining the station in the
West End of London
The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, Central London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster. It is west of the City of London an ...
, including Victoria Street,
Buckingham Palace Road
Buckingham Palace Road is a street that runs through Victoria, London, from the south side of Buckingham Palace towards Chelsea, London, Chelsea, forming the A3214 road (Great Britain), A3214 road. It is dominated by London Victoria station, V ...
,
Wilton Road,
Grosvenor Gardens, and Vauxhall Bridge Road. Victoria consists predominantly of commercial property and private and social housing, with retail uses along the main streets.
The area contains one of the busiest transport interchanges in London and the United Kingdom, including the listed railway station and the underground station, as well as Terminus Place, which is a major hub for bus and taxi services.
Victoria Coach Station
Victoria Coach Station in the City of Westminster is the largest bus station, coach station in London, and a bus terminus, terminus for medium and long distance Coach transport in the United Kingdom, coach services in the United Kingdom. It is ...
, 900 yards (800 metres) southwest of the railway station, provides road-coach services to long-distance UK and continental destinations.
Victoria Street runs on an east–west axis from Victoria station to
Broad Sanctuary at
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
.
Cardinal Place, across the street from
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral, officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, is the largest Catholic Church in England and Wales, Roman Catholic church in England and Wales. The shrine is dedicated to the Blood of Jesus Ch ...
, opened in 2006 and contains a selection of restaurants, banks and shops, including a
Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...
store. Further along the street, there is a large
House of Fraser
House of Fraser (rebranding to Frasers) is a British department store chain with 23 locations across the United Kingdom and 2 in Ireland, part of Frasers Group. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891, it ...
department store (formerly the
Army & Navy) opposite
Westminster City Hall. At the Broad Sanctuary end is the
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom Government, from July 2016 to Februar ...
building, the headquarters of
Transport for London
Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom.
TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...
at Windsor House, and the former
New Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
building (headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service from 1967 to 2016).
History

The area formed part of the parish of
St George Hanover Square
St George Hanover Square was a Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. The creation of the parish accompanied the building of the St George's, Hanover Square, Church of St George's, Hanover Square, ...
.
Long before Cardinal Place opposite the cathedral came into being there was a huge brewery (Stag Brewery) based at the western end of Victoria Street. From the early 17th century it started off as a small brewhouse with properties that once were part of St James's Palace. This then substantially grew and then was bought and owned by
Watney & Co. They built lodgings around the brewery as well as amenities for their staff to use. By the end of the 19th century they were employing a sizeable number of staff. (It closed down in 1959 and was demolished. All that now remains of it is a street named Stag Place and a pub called the Stag.)
Part of a slum, dubbed "
Devil's Acre" by
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
, was demolished to construct Victoria Street, which opened for use in 1851.
Pleasance Pendred and three other suffragettes smashed the windows of various shops including the antiquities shop at 167 Victoria Street in 1913.
Victoria Station was built in 1860.
The architect
Archibald Leitch
Archibald Keir Leitch (27 April 1865 – 25 April 1939) was a Scottish architect, most famous for his work designing association football, football stadiums throughout Great Britain and Ireland.
Early work
Born in Glasgow, Leitch's early work w ...
who was renowned for his work designing football stadiums including
Goodison Park
Goodison Park is a Association football, football stadium in Walton, Liverpool, Walton, Liverpool, England, it was the home of Premier League club Everton F.C., Everton from 1892 until 2025. It is now the home of Everton F.C. (women), Everton's ...
,
Craven Cottage
Craven Cottage is a football stadium in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 29,589; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game agains ...
,
Anfield
Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...
,
Stamford Bridge,
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...
,
Ibrox and
White Hart Lane
White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...
among many others, had offices which were based at 53 Victoria Street and the street as a whole housed many consulting engineering firms until the 1970s.
According to
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010), was an English actor, comedian, musician, and singer, best known for his series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966, in which he portrayed the endearingly inept charact ...
's biography, he slept near the statue of
Marshal Foch by the bus station at the westerly end of the street when his parents split up at the age of 9.
Before going into comedy he worked as an errand boy in the then grand Artillery Mansions on Victoria Street which was then a grand hotel. In the 1980s it went into decay and became a
squat – and in the 1990s was gutted, refurbished and now it is an elegant apartment block.
Landmarks
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral, officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, is the largest Catholic Church in England and Wales, Roman Catholic church in England and Wales. The shrine is dedicated to the Blood of Jesus Ch ...
is the largest
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
church in the UK and the seat of the
Archbishop of Westminster. It was built between 1895 and 1903 in the
Neo-Byzantine
Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a Revivalism (architecture), revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine architecture, ...
style on a site previously occupied by the
Tothill Fields Bridewell prison from 1618 to 1884.
Victoria Palace Theatre dates from 1911 and replaced the Royal Standard Music Hall, built in 1886. That itself had been a replacement for an earlier Royal Standard Music Hall, which originally opened in 1850 as Moy's Music Hall.
Little Ben, a -tall clock tower in the style of
Big Ben
Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, and, by extension, for the clock tower itself, which stands at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. Originally named the Clock Tower, it ...
, stands at the intersection of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Victoria Street. It was erected in 1892 but removed in 1964 during road widening works, and was kept in storage until eventually being restored in 1981.
The
Apollo Victoria Theatre was built in 1929 in
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style, opening in 1930 the New Victoria Cinema. It closed in 1975 before being reopened as a theatre in 1981. In 1984 it became host to the musical ''
Starlight Express
'' Starlight Express'' is a 1984 musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. It tells the story of a young but obsolete steam engine, Rusty, who races in a championship against modern locomotives of diesel and el ...
'', which remained its main production until 2002.
Opposite the Victoria Street entrance to Victoria Station is the site of the former Metropole Kinema, built in 1929 and in operation until 1977. It reopened in 1978 as
The Venue, a live music club owned by
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...
, which ran until 1984. The building was demolished in 2013.
The
House of Fraser
House of Fraser (rebranding to Frasers) is a British department store chain with 23 locations across the United Kingdom and 2 in Ireland, part of Frasers Group. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891, it ...
department store on Victoria Street, opened in 2005, is built on the site of the former flagship branch of the
Army & Navy Stores, opened in 1872. Army & Navy Stores had been acquired by House of Fraser in 1973.
Local schools
Three notable schools are closest to the Victoria neighbourhood,
Westminster City School for Boys and
Grey Coat Hospital for Girls, as well as the independent
Westminster School
Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...
at Deans Yard near
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
.
Future
Victoria is a designated 'Opportunity Area' in the Mayor's London Plan and Westminster City Council's Adopted Core Strategy January 2011 policy planning document, recognising the potential of the area, with its excellent transport links to accommodate commercial and residential growth. There are a number of emerging proposals for major redevelopment in the area, including improvements to the Victoria Underground Station, and regeneration of surrounding sites.
See also
*
Pimlico
Pimlico () is a district in Central London, in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by Lon ...
References
{{LB City of Westminster
Areas of London
Districts of the City of Westminster
Business improvement districts in London
Central business districts in the United Kingdom