Victoria, London
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, lying wholly within the City of Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
, and named after Queen Victoria.
The area is vaguely defined as the streets around, and named after Victoria Station
Victoria station (London)
Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It is named after nearby Victoria Street and not Queen Victoria. It is the second busiest railway terminus in London after Waterloo, and includes an air terminal for passengers...
, including Victoria Street (see below), Buckingham Palace Road, Wilton Road, Grosvenor Gardens, and Vauxhall Bridge Road. Victoria consists predominantly of commercial property, private and social housing, with retail uses along the main streets.
Victoria contains one of the busiest transport interchanges in London, including the listed railway station, the underground station as well as Terminus Place which is a major hub for bus and taxi movement. Victoria Coach Station
Victoria Coach Station
Victoria Coach Station is the largest and most significant coach station in London. It serves long distance coach services and is also the departure point for many countryside coach tours originating from London. It should not be confused with the nearby Green Line Coach Station serving Green Line...
- 800m southwest of the railway station provides long distance links to the UK and continental Europe.
Victoria Street runs on an east-west axis from Victoria station to Broad Sanctuary at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. Cardinal Place
Cardinal Place
Cardinal Place is a retail and office development in London, near Victoria Station and opposite Westminster Cathedral. The site consists of three buildings covering over a million square feet on Victoria Street next door to Portland House, and was designed by EPR Architects and built by Robert...
, located across the street from Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales and the Metropolitan Church and Cathedral of the Archbishop of Westminster...
, opened in 2006 and contains a selection of restaurants, banks and shops, including a Marks and Spencer store. Further along the street, there is a large House of Fraser
House of Fraser
House of Fraser is a British department store group with over 60 stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891 it was known as Fraser & Sons. The company grew steadily during the early 20th century, but after the Second...
department store (formerly the Army & Navy) opposite Westminster City Hall. At the Broad Sanctuary end is the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is a ministerial department of the United Kingdom Government created on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform .-Ministers:The BIS...
building, the headquarters of Transport for London
Transport for London
Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
at Windsor House and New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
.
Local schools
There are three notable schools within the Victoria area, Westminster City SchoolWestminster City School
Westminster City School is a voluntary aided Christian school for boys in Westminster, London. The school has 800 students on its roll, and it offers 105 of 130 places each year to boys practising the Christian faith in the Anglican dioceses of London and Southwark. The other 25 spaces are...
for Boys and Grey Coat Hospital
Grey Coat Hospital
The Grey Coat Hospital is a Church of England comprehensive secondary school for girls in Westminster, London, England.-History:The school was founded on St. Andrew's Day in 1698. Eight members of the congregation of St. Margaret's, Westminster donated towards the founding of the school, initially...
for Girls, as well the independent Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
at Deans Yard near Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
.
History
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 & CoJames Watney
James Watney was a brewer and landowner who resided at Haling Park, Croydon, and Beddington, Surrey. He was born to Daniel Watney of Mitcham, Surrey and Mary Galpin , daughter of James Galpin of Mitcham, Surrey...
. 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.
Victoria Street originated in the 1850s - construction of this main thoroughfare led to demolition of slums. The station was built in 1861.
Archibald Leitch who was renowned for his work designing football stadiums including Craven Cottage
Craven Cottage
Craven Cottage is the name of a football stadium in the Hammersmith and Fulham area that has been the home ground of the association football team Fulham F.C. since 1896....
, Anfield
Anfield
Anfield is an association football stadium in the district of Anfield, Liverpool, England, with a seating capacity of 45,522. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892 and was originally the home of Everton F.C. from 1884 to 1892, before they moved to Goodison Park...
, Stamford Bridge
Stamford Bridge (stadium)
Stamford Bridge is a football stadium in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, West London, and is the home of Chelsea Football Club. The stadium is located within the Moore Park Estate also known as Walham Green and is often referred to as simply The Bridge...
, Old Trafford, Ibrox
Ibrox Stadium
Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium located on the south side of the River Clyde, on Edmiston Drive in the Ibrox district of Glasgow. It is the home ground of Scottish Premier League club Rangers and has an all-seated capacity of 51,082...
and White Hart Lane
White Hart Lane
White Hart Lane is an all-seater football stadium in Tottenham, London, England. Built in 1899, it is the home of Tottenham Hotspur and, after numerous renovations, the stadium has a capacity of 36,230....
among many others, had offices were based at 53 Victoria Street (they too are long gone), and the street as a whole housed many consulting engineering firms until the 1970s.
According to his biography Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...
slept near the statue of Marshal Foch
Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch , GCB, OM, DSO was a French soldier, war hero, military theorist, and writer credited with possessing "the most original and subtle mind in the French army" in the early 20th century. He served as general in the French army during World War I and was made Marshal of France in its...
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 an elegant apartment block.
The Victoria Palace Theatre
Victoria Palace Theatre
Victoria Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, opposite Victoria Station.-Origins:The theatre began life as a small concert room above the stables of the Royal Standard Hotel, a small hotel and tavern built in 1832 at what was then 522 Stockbridge...
has been in its present site since 1832. It was originally known as Moys Music Hall but after Victoria station was built it got demolished. It was demolished again in 1911 due to modernisation. It was most famous for a gold statue of Anna Pavlova which was above it. In 1939 it was removed and lost. A replica has recently been added. Also known as the home of the Crazy Gang and the Black and White Minstrels. It has hosted countless famous in the yearly Royal Variety Show. Most of the year it hosts musicals (its longest showing was Barnum) its latest being Billy Elliott.
Little Ben
Little Ben
Little Ben is a cast iron miniature clock tower, situated at the intersection of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Victoria Street, in Westminster, central London, close to the approach to Victoria station...
- a small 20 ft version of Big Ben stands in a traffic island outside the Victoria Palace was first erected in 1891 removed in 1963 and put back in 1981. It was erected with sponsorship from Elf Aquitaine Ltd as a gift of anglo-french friendship.
The Apollo Victoria on Wilton Road was designed as a super Cinema in the art deco style in the 1930 and opened as the "New Victoria". The Cinema closed in 1975 and went through a number of incarnations. In 1981 it opened with a concert by Shirley Bassey. After that it hosted a few musicals until 1984 when the roller musical Starlight Express which was the main event for 16 years. They then continued with a few musicals - Bombay Dreams, Saturday Night Fever - and its latest attraction is the musical Wicked.
Victoria Picture Palace - The Cinema, which opened in 1911 was situated directly across the street from, what is now, Victoria St Tube Station entrance. In 1978 it re-opened as
The Venue
The Venue (Victoria Street, London)
The Venue was a Music club at 33 Victoria Street, London, England, owned by Virgin Records. It opened its doors in October 1978. The first act to play there was Graham Parker and The Rumour, followed by the last live performances by Alex Harvey before his death.Other acts that played in the early...
- nightclub (Owned by Virgin Records). Famous & not so famous, musical acts from all over the world performed there including, Todd Rundgren, James Brown, The Cars, Captain Beefheart, Hall & Oates, Rocket 88 featuring Alexis Corner, Nine Below Zero & The Skids, to name a few.'The Venue', closed its doors, late 1981 and the Auditorium was demolished to make way for an office block. The Foyer section still stands as an Italian restaurant.
The House of Fraser
House of Fraser
House of Fraser is a British department store group with over 60 stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891 it was known as Fraser & Sons. The company grew steadily during the early 20th century, but after the Second...
store in the middle of Victoria has been for most of its life known as the Army & Navy. It opened in 1872 and sold groceries, clothes, various apparel and originally guns. It used to be open only to the most highest ranking elements of the armed forces and widows. This changed after 1922 when it was open to all. It has gradually shrunk in size. Its warehousing and depot area was sold to the Post Office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
, its staff car parking on Artillery Row was sold in the 1980s to make offices and its old food hall closed and is now a mini shopping concession mall. In 2005 it changed its name to House of Fraser.
The Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales and the Metropolitan Church and Cathedral of the Archbishop of Westminster...
was built in 1903 filling a site previously occupied by the Tothill Fields Prison.