Victoria, London

Victoria is an area of Westminster, Central London in the City of Westminster. 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, including Victoria Street, Buckingham Palace Road, 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, 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. Cardinal Place, across the street from Westminster Cathedral, 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 department store (formerly the Army & Navy) opposite Westminster City Hall. At the Broad Sanctuary end is the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy building, the headquarters of Transport for London at Windsor House, and the former New Scotland Yard building (headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service from 1967 to 2016).

The area formed part of the parish of St George 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, 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.