London Victoria began as two rival stations squeezed side by side
Walk across London Victoria and it can feel like two stations stitched together, because it was. One company opened a terminus for Brighton trains in 1860, a rival opened another next door two years later, and passengers long treated them as unconnected.
By 1850, trains from southern England ended at London Bridge, Bricklayers' Arms or Waterloo, all south of the Thames and awkward for anyone heading to Westminster, the West End or the City. John Urpeth Rastrick had urged a West End branch as early as 1842, without success. What changed the calculation was the Crystal Palace, relocated out of Hyde Park and re-erected on Sydenham Hill over the years 1851 to 1854. A line from there ran to a makeshift terminus of wooden huts at Battersea, confusingly called Pimlico, which opened on 27 March 1858.
Everyone agreed a proper station north of the river was needed. Four companies, the Great Western, London and North Western, East Kent and the Brighton line's operator, formed the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway on 23 July 1859 to cross the Thames on the new Grosvenor Bridge. The site was first called the Grosvenor Terminus, then renamed after Victoria Street. The East Kent company soon rebranded itself the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, and its station joined the Brighton one in 1862.
Popularity brought congestion and repeated rebuilding. Victoria became famous for luxurious Pullman trains and boat trains to the Continent, and for crowds of soldiers during the First World War. Steam gave way to electric and diesel units by the 1960s, and today every train runs on third-rail electric power. International services ended once the Channel Tunnel opened, and the badly overcrowded Underground station was finally upgraded in the late 2010s.
The station, Grade II listed since 1970, is one of 19 run by Network Rail. Main lines reach Brighton, Gatwick Airport, and Ramsgate and Dover via Chatham, with Southern, Southeastern and some Thameslink trains, plus half-hourly nonstop Gatwick Express services. Below ground the Circle, District and Victoria lines call, buses fill the forecourt, and Victoria Coach Station, about 300 metres away, links London with the rest of Britain and mainland Europe.
Source: London Victoria station
