Victoria

London's Victoria Station - the grand start and finish point for journeys to far-away romantic sounding places, seaside holidays and southern commuter-land.

The Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway was established in 1858 to extend the lines from Stewarts Lane across the river to a new terminus in a smart part of London, only a short distance from Buckingham Palace. The LBSCR station opened on 1st October 1860. This was also used by LCDR trains from the December of that year until their own station opened on 25 August 1862. From that moment until 1924 the two stations remained as totally separate entities. The LCDR station was jointly owned by the GWR until 1932 and five tracks were originally of mixed gauge to take broad gauge services from Southall.

The rather shambling original Victoria was rebuilt in a grand manner in the first decade of the 20th century with the LBSCR station being completed in 1908 and the LCDR side in 1909. Come grouping and the merger of the two companies into the Southern Railway the station was run by a single Station Master from 1924 and in 1925 the platforms were numbered as a single system starting from platform one on the Chatham side. However only small cut-throughs between the two stations were provided and within the stations still appeared separate. Even today the station is operated as two distinct set of services and though the departures and arrivals boards inform of all services there is still concentration on their own services on each side.

The eastern side of Victoria looking towards platforms 1 to 8.

photograph by the late Eric Arnold, courtesy of Mike Morant

The "Brighton side" frontage of Victoria Station, with the hotel above, the exterior entrance to the underground station on the left and the bus station to the right, taken from the corner of Wilton Road (as seen on 29 January 2000.)

photograph by Colin Duff

The entrance arch through to the "Chatham side" of the station, even today (this photograph taken on 17 May 2000) still proclaiming the presence of the Southern Railway. The vacant thin rectangular plaque situated between the two rows of windows used to advertise the presence of the Great Western Railway.

photograph by Colin Duff

The canopy was renovated in 1984 and highlights destinations, both in England and abroad, served from the station. (17 May 2000)

photograph by Colin Duff

This view shows the modern day Victoria to good advantage. Networker 365505 waits with the 11:05am to Ramsgate on 16 March 2003 alongside the large columns supporting the roof. These gained their present-day cladding during the station's last re-building during the late 1980s, cladding which originally had the Network SouthEast colours incorporated. In the middle ground can be seen the trainshed roof, blending in well with the more modern canopies on the country end of the platforms whilst in the background can be seen some of the new buildings that have been erected in recent years in the surrounding area.

photograph by Paul Ferbrache

All photographs are copyright

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This page was last updated 8 March 2004