Victoria Station, usually known to Londoners as just ‘Victoria’ is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex in north Pimlico named after nearby Victoria Street. Over 81 million passenger started or finished a journey at Victoria between April 2013 and March 2014 which makes it the second-busiest terminus in London (and the UK) after London Waterloo.
circa 1880: A group of horses and hansom cabs waiting for fares outside the London, Chatham and Dover Railway side of Victoria Station in London. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
In Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being Ernest, the title character was, of course, found in a handbag:
Jack: In the cloakroom at Victoria Station. It was given to him in mistake for his own.
Lady Bracknell: The cloakroom at Victoria Station?
Jack: Yes. The Brighton line.
Lady Bracknell: The line is immaterial…
At the time, approaching the end of the century (the play was first performed on Valentine’s day in 1895 at St James’s Theatre) Victoria Station was made up of two separate, but adjacent terminal stations. To the east was the ramshackle and run-down Chatham and Dover railway. Jack, however, was trying to get across to Lady Bracknell was that he was found on the far more upmarket London, Brighton and South Coast Railway which went to Worthing – the fashionable and expensive town after which Jack was named.
German-American actress Marlene Dietrich (1901 – 1992) leaving Victoria Station in a car after arriving in London, 30th July 1936. (Photo by Davies/Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
In the Observer, June 11, 1860
Opening of the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway
This line, which forms a connection between all the railways south of the Thames and the Victoria Station, now in the course of erection at Pimlico, was opened on Saturday. The train started from the Battersea Station of the Brighton Railway , and passed over the Victoria Bridge amidst the cheers of the assembled workmen, proceeding up tot he Victoria Staion, which occupies the site of the old Grosvenor basin.
The W.H. Smith bookstall at Victoria Railway Station, London, January 1924. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
2nd October 1960: An autumn mist falls on Victoria Bus Station in London. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)
Platform View at Victoria Underground Station on the District Line, London, November 23rd, 1896.
Victoria Bus Station, London, 1939
Lady with her dog at London Victoria station, 1950.
Victoria Station in 1927
Following the decision of the executive council of the transport and general workers’ union to end the strike of London passenger transport board busmen, the 25,000 drivers and conductors who have been idle for almost a month, Kent back to work again. It is expected that the new agreement to be negotiated between the union and the board will embody all the men’s demands except the ½ hour day, which, the board claims, is too costly. Buses in the terminal park outside Victoria station on May 28. The yard has been deserted during the month’s strike. (AP Photo)
A large crowd of people, including a nun, waiting to have their suit-cases examined before depositing them at the cloak room at Victoria, London on July 27, 1939, a precautionary measure instituted following the bomb explosion at the clock room last night. (AP Photo)
Belgian pilots enjoy a beer, a cigarette and a chat as they relax at “Aux Neufs Provinces”, a club attached to the restaurant “Chez Gaston”, near Victoria Station
Chez Gaston – a Belgian Restaurant near Victoria Station, 1944
Victoria Station in 1941
Victoria Station postcard c.1904 and based on the first photo in this post
Emperor Haile Selassie, once ruler of rolling Abyssinia, returned, a tragic, defeated figure with downcast eyes. He returned from Geneva where he had made a last bid to secure the League Councils repudiation of Mussolinis claims to sovereignty over Abyssinia. The Negus Haile Selassie, walking from the platform at Victoria Station in London, on May 14, 1938, on his return from Geneva. (AP Photo)
Victoria Station postcard sent in 1902
1956, London, England, UK — Newly landed immigrants at Victoria Station. London.
Victoria Coach Station
Victoria Coach Station 1974
Victoria Coach Station was opened where its presently situated on Buckingham Palace Road in 1932, by London Coastal Coaches, an association of coach operators. The architects of the Art-Deco style building were Wallis, Gilbert and Partners. The building wasn’t listed until September 2014
3rd August 1929: Passengers aboard open top buses at Victoria Motor Coach Station. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)
Here’s a sound recording of Victoria Coach station in 1935, three years after it opened.
Victoria Coach Station early 50s
Victoria bus station in 1927
London Victoria Bus Station 1956
Victoria Station c.1969
Victoria bus station in London in 1927
The exterior of Victoria Station in London, January 1924. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
29th July 1955: Members of the Belgian Senate Delegation surveying operations at the bus terminal at Victoria Station during a two-day visit to London to discuss plans for Railway modernisation with representatives of the British Transport Commission. (Photo by William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images)
29th July 1950: Holiday makers queuing outside Victoria Station, London. (Photo by Ron Case/Keystone/Getty Images)
29th June 1934: Staff of the Southern Railway at Victoria station, London changing the name board on the front of a train, the ‘Southern Belle’ is now called the ‘Brighton Belle’. (Photo by E. Dean/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
1926: Exterior of Victoria Station, London with taxis and open-topped buses queuing outside. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)
The exterior of Victoria Station in London, January 1924. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
circa 1915: Troops leaving railway carriages at Victoria Station, London. (Photo by F J Mortimer/Getty Images)
December 1914: Two soldiers on the concourse at Victoria station, London, about to leave for the front line. They are carrying parcels full of food and other provisions. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
25th July 1909: Crowds cheer French aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot (left, waving) at Victoria station, London, after his historic Channel flight. Seated next to Bleriot is the 1st Viscount Northcliffe, the Daily Mail publisher, who organised the Channel Challenge. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
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