Victoria Coach Station is the largest

coach station A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city bus, city or intercity bus, intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus ga ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, located in the central district of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

. It serves as a terminus for many medium- and long-distance coach services in the United Kingdom, and is also the departure point for many countryside coach tours originating from London. It is operated by Victoria Coach Station Limited, a subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL). The station reports 14,000,000 passengers with 472,000 individual coach arrivals or departures.Companies House extract company no 205610
/ref> It should not be confused with the nearby

Green Line Coach Station Green Line Coach Station is a coach station in London, England, situated in Bulleid Way, Victoria. The station offers regional coach services to various destinations to the north and west of London by Green Line Coaches and others, and tour b ...

for

Green Line Coaches Green Line is a commuter coach brand in the Home counties of England. The trademark is owned by Arriva, with services operated by Arriva Shires & Essex and Reading Buses. Green Line had its origin in the network of coach services established ...

, or with

Victoria bus station Victoria bus station is a bus station outside London Victoria station. It is managed only by Transport for London. In 1970, work commenced on a substantial roof canopy. This was demolished in April 2003 as part of the station's refurbishment. ...

which serves

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...

operated by TfL.

History

Commissioned by London Coastal Coaches, a consortium of coach operators, Victoria Coach Station was opened at its present site in

Buckingham Palace Road Buckingham Palace Road is a street that runs through Victoria, London, from the south side of Buckingham Palace towards Chelsea, forming the A3214 road. It is dominated by Victoria Station. History In the 18th century, the road was known as ...

on 10 March 1932 by

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

John Pybus. The building is in a distinctive

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style, the architects for which were

Wallis, Gilbert and Partners Wallis, Gilbert and Partners was a British architectural partnership responsible for the design of many Art Deco buildings in the UK in the 1920s and 1930s. It was established by Thomas Wallis (1873–1953) in 1916. Wallis had previously served ...

. As built it had space for 76 coaches plus a large booking hall, shops, buffet, restaurant, lounge, bar, the administrative offices of London Coastal Coaches Ltd and some privately let offices on the upper floors. Most coach services were suspended during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the building was requisitioned by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

, being returned with the resumption of coach travel in 1946. In 1970 the coach operators' association which managed the station became a subsidiary of the National Bus Company. In 1988, ownership of Victoria Coach Station Limited was transferred to London Transport. In 2000, Transport for London was formed and took over the station. The freeholder of the site,

Grosvenor Group Grosvenor Group Limited is an internationally diversified property group, which traces its origins to 1677 and has its headquarters in London, England. It has a global reach, now in 62 international cities, with offices in 14 of them, operated on ...

, announced in 2013 that it wished to redevelop the site and relocate the station elsewhere in London. However, the building was

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

at Grade II by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

in 2014. Transport for London will have to give up its use of most of the site in 2023, when several leases expire, and so had been looking to relocate the station, but announced in late 2019 that they would instead stay put and change the layout of the terminal.

Operation

Victoria Coach Station has separate arrival and departure terminals which are located on opposite sides of Elizabeth Street. The main departures building includes food and retail outlets, left-luggage facilities and a ticket hall. There are 21 departure gates, with the site covering . In the 12 months to March 2014 there were 14 million passengers at the station and over 240,000 coach departures from the station.

Passenger and coach numbers

The station passenger numbers have risen in the 10 years (2008 to 2018) by 47% from 9.5 million (2008) to 14 million (2018). Coach numbers have risen by 20% over the same period – from 394,000 (2008) to 472,000 (2018).

Services

Services are operated by: *Airport Bus Express *Brigit's Afternoon Tea *

BlaBlaBus BlaBlaCar Bus, formerly BlaBlaBus, Ouibus or iDBUS, operates coach services in Europe. Currently, BlaBlaCar Bus serves Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Genoa, Lille, London, Lyon, Marseille, Milan, Nice, Paris, Paris Char ...

Eurolines Eurolines is a brand of intercity bus service owned by an international non-profit organisation formed under Belgian law. Using the Eurolines brand, partner bus companies operate service to over 600 destinations in 36 countries of Europe, as wel ...

* Evan Evans * Flixbus *

Megabus Megabus may refer to: *Megabus (Europe), a low-cost coach service with services in Europe owned by ComfortDelGro. *Megabus (North America) Megabus, branded as megabus.com, is an intercity bus service of Coach USA/ Coach Canada operating in the ...

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

*Premium Tours *Sindbad *Transmarian

Connections

routes 11, 44, 170, 211, C1, C10, N11 and N44 serve the coach station. It is a short walk from Victoria railway station.

Financial information

Profits for the Coach Station have increased over recent years.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Art Deco architecture in London Bus stations in London Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Transport in the City of Westminster Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster Transport for London Victoria, London