Victoria Coach Station

London Victoria Coach Station is exceptional for the volume of people and coaches it caters for - truly staggering.  I arrived in last week on the coach from Plymouth with the onward destination of Norwich and found it very easy to use.  Yes, it is small but its achievements are massive given what it has to do.  I felt pretty safe although I did guard my luggage at all times.  You need to pay to use the toilets but they are quite clean (hard to take a suitcase in a cubicle though if you are a lone traveller!).
The information desk were very helpful and friendly as the departures board is comprehensive but the listings move fast.
In all - people shouldn't complain about this place.  If they really want to gripe, come and look at Bretonside Plymouth bus/coach station.  Toilets locked after 5pm, no cafes or eateries and tramps aplenty sleeping around among the smell of urine.
London Victoria Coach Station in all, was impressive and well managed for the space - I would certainly travel through there again.  It's put Plymouth to shame.

Nice spacious, airy tube station. There are loads of shops and places to eat if you are waiting on a train/tube/someone!

I sometimes feel i spend half my life here waiting for coaches. As these places go its not so bad. the best coffee in the complex is in the small alcove in arrivals (just under the clock) what ever you do don’t use the unisex loo in arrivals, it is ALWAYS wet & smelly. in departures it is very easy to find which stand your coach is going from. beware of beggars here! Most of the stuff on sale is priced high, but that’s london for you. Its almost impossible to get lost here & if your bored its only a short walk up the road to buckingham palace. There is a well run mobility lounge and if it all gets too much for you they will let you sit and recover there for a short while on the comfy seats in a air conditioned room. This room is a wonderful haven for disabled travellers, although there isn’t even a water dispenser there. Reading some of the other reviews here it seems some people think they are reviewing the near by railway station. There is now FREE wifi here.

As coach stations go its not too bad. It's fairly clean and for its size not too shady when eaiting for the overnight coach out of london. Staff are a little brusque but i guess its not a stress free job.

+ Not too far away from Victoria tube and rail stations. Good to have a single terminal for coach travel into London (if you don't take into account the Green Line coach station not far away).

- I think that this coach station is a bit dangerous. Especially in the departure bit. I think it's too easy to get into the path of the coach plus i think it's too easy to miss the coach whilst waiting there. It seemed a bit crowded and a bit out of date.

In an ideal non-cutback and forget-about-the-property-values world this coach station would be gutted and re-built.

∑ It needs to be a better advertisement for coach travel and it needs the St Pancras treatment.

Victoria Coach Station can be a massively disorientating experience if you're not used to London. Step off your Megabus/National Express coach/delete as appropriate, and you're immediately plunged into a huge (and quite smelly) melting pot of possibly every different nationality going. And that's before you have to actually navigate your way around the place to find an exit. Everywhere you look, all you can see are people balancing rucksacks, drinking coffee and trying to control screaming children who are running riot all around the place.

Whilst it looks quite fancy from the outside, it's more than a little scummy on the inside, and it can often feel like a very cold and scary place, particularly if you're a woman travelling on her own. I also once had to spend an hour in here waiting for my bus back to Manchester when I was in the throes of the Novovirus, which was an experience I would only ever wish on the very worst of my enemies - particularly as I had to keep finding 20p pieces so I could use their toilets (which - by the way - are filled with a very interesting and multicultural selection of graffiti).

It could use a much better selection of eating outlets (mainly because I object to paying over £2 for a cup of watery coffee served to me by a sulky teenager), but as someone below me commented, the best thing about this place is definitely its arrival and departure boards. They go so fast that they really do feel as though you're in the middle of a Stock Exchange - thank goodness then they have an information booth next door to these where you can go if it all gets a little confusing.

Avoid this place if you can, but if you must come here, take a good book - and a good set of headphones to drown out the inevitable screaming kid you'll probably be sat next to.

I think for the size of a capital city like London Victoria Coach Station is a very tiny and dodgy looking place. I waited for my bus to Edinburgh a couple of hours and nearly caught a cold. The choice of food and drinks is not great, all the shops and cafes inside are opened or based on a stall principle. The clerk behind the change buro counter tried to rip me off with a horrendous exchange rate from Euro into Pound, I was a bit tired and cold to listen to rubbish so I wanted my money back. To my surprise he offered me a bargain, we started bargaining and struck a deal pretty much close to the real exchange rate for the day. He should have been feeling slightly down in order to go for such a 'party time'. On top of that most of the monitors at the gates would run a thief warning to the passengers that 'thieves liked laptops, etc, etc.' I needed desperately internet, so I took my laptop carefully out and looked around to see if someone was showing any interest - there was a free wi-fi from International Express but was practically unusable. I walked towards my bus with a sense of relief.

Ok, the terminal itself is fine. Getting the coach is generally fine as long as you avoid using the toilet on any stretch of road that has roundabouts! The only reason I'm bothering with this review is because of the departures screen. It reads like a massive stock market screen with relentless changes to info and things flashing all over the place. I just don't get why they didn't stick with the tried and tested solution that has worked at airports and train stations for years. Not good on a hangover!

Stations by their very nature are not placs you would ordinarily want to linger for long in- disorientating, chaotic, noisy and so often so cold. Bags to trip over, cash machines tat have the longest queues and tinny announcements that no one can understand. Victoria Station is probably my least favourite Station in london but seems to be the one I pass through most frequently. Luckily I make the same journey to and from it so I now know where I am going. Just as well 'cause they seem to have given up listing the next train to brighton up on the board (maybe i need new glasses…) Best scenario is to get there with tickets already bought and the perfect amount of time to get a coffee, paper and anything else I might want and head straight for the train. Last time we were there we had half an hour o spare- which is normally unthinkable for us. We had to find somewhere out of the way to park- our stress levels rapidly escalating. Luckily I remembered a spot by the Wheatherspoons, round the back- phew. But thats also where the pigeons hang out so it would seem. Oh well- it does what it’s meant to but a little bit of peace wouldn’t go a miss- quite carriages on the train- what about at the station?

As one of the busiest hubs of transportational activity in the city, I feel proud that Victoria Station is doing such a fine job of entertaining newcomers to the capital. Indeed, why would anyone ever want to leave?

A plethora of food options awaits the hungry traveller, from Burger King and Krispy Kreme to the more healthy Pret and M&S, while sartorial requirements are well met by New Look, Dorothy Perkins and Next, located on the upper level accessible by escalators - here you’ll also find a very classy fast food hall. Books, stationery and posh greetings cards are covered by Paperchase, WH Smith and Books Etc. Anyone visiting for the first time from afar has only to get off their train to experience the full force of the Great British High Street, complete with handy gambling den (next to the Gatwick Express).

Top tips for first time visitors - the toilets aren’t free so remember to bring change, and the quickest way to get to Victoria Coach Station is to go up the escalators to the right of the big departures board in the main concourse, walk through the shopping mall and exit the station on street level at the back. Cross the road and continue straight to the next crossing, where you’ll spy the Coach Station diagonally to your right. If you go out the front of Victoria Station it takes much longer!

I have to work above Victoria station in an office, and it drives me potty. The station is comprised mostly of lost tourists taking their suitcases for a walk, people walking sideways while scanning the departure boards, annoying promotional booths that block the best routes while giving out useless free tissues or ripoff sim cards, and hot, sweaty, fed up commuters wishing they were anywhere else but here. Trying to get out of the tube in the morning and walk diagonally across the station concourse is regularly the worst point of my journey. There are no clearly marked 'up’ or 'down’ stairs so the number of streams of people coming up or down at any one time is random. Once, all the streams were down, and everyone trying to get up was just stuck at the bottom.

The shops are fairly average for a station - you know what to expect. The shopping centre upstairs is dingy, though it does have a Books etc which I retreat to on many a rainy lunchtime to browse in. Beware more promotional booths up here though; they are pretty grabby and don’t take no for an answer.

The whole station is dirty (you can play spot the dust bunny while waiting for your cancelled train). Trains in the evening are often allocated platforms with literally seconds to go, prompting stampedes.

I don’t like it much. Does that come across?

I used to get the train into Victoria every morning when i worked in London. Its a great station that is convenient for all places you may be trying to get too.

The tube station is right in the station, and the bus station is located right outside. You can also get a fast train to Gatwick airport from Victoria.

Victoria can become very busy in the mornings and in rush hour. If there is a hold up on the trains, you could be waiting for hours with 1,000’s of people trying to get home. It then does become a bit stressfull.

If you are ever stuck then you have a great choice of shops and places to eat. I especially like Krsipy Kreme’s - yum!

However, if you need the toilet in Victoria, you will have to pay. Recently it went up from 20p to 30p, which is a totally rip off. The toilets are always clean though as they have staff in there all the time making sure its kept clean and tidy.

Ive spent many a night in Victoria Station. When i was a lad concerts would let out with just enough time for you to jump on the tube and catch the last train hope from Victoria.

If you have not experienced the last train home, it is truly an interesting time. Victoria station is a large cavanous structure that reminds me of a giant warehouse, storing drunk stag night girls, football fans and students sitting on the floor in a circle playing guitar.

if you avoid all these people, and actually walk through the station to the lines around the corner to get your ticket, you can actually grab a good clean train.

If you travel by train from the continent of Europe you will undoubtedly pass through Victoria station eventually.

Centrally located with connections to the Underground aka the tube. You can handle many of your travel needs at this station. From buying subway tickets to exchanging currency into pounds sterling this transportation hub has it.

There are shops for magazines, snacks and souvenirs also.

Victoria coach station is my new 'airport’. Travelling by coach is the replacement of flying to Europe recently for me. It is less hassle, no extra fuel surcharge, no excess bagage charges to worry about. It is also greener, better for the environment. I have been going to snowbaording trips in France via coaches. Althought it normally takes about 14hours but it will only be a few hours more than taking a plane as it cuts away the time on transfers and check-in and out at the airports. I have just tried going to Paris via Euroline and it took 9 hours or there about. One thing to bear in mind, do check in at Euroline office as your ticket will not be valid otherwise.

The station itself is quite self-contain and there are good signages to guide you to the respective bays for boarding the coaches. It is a short distance from the Victoria Tube station however if you are carrying a lot, it is better to take a bus and it stops in front of the station.

This is the place to go if you’re catching a coach to.. anywhere in the UK. Most of the time the train is cheaper (but remember - prebook!), but if you manage to grab a funfare, coach travel can be seriously cheap.
So, you get there. It’s a predictably busy, slighly derelict station but it has all the basic amenities. You can exchange your foreign cash here, go to the loo (surprisingly clean), grab a sandwich or a drink, even book a cab or hotel from here. This isn’t a place to spend more than a couple of hours in between coaches though.
The walk to Victoria metro station is distressingly long and can be hard to find. IT’s particularly frustrating when you get into Victoria train station building and find out that actually the underground station is located on the opposite side of the (enormous) building.

One of the best stations around, although it looks old and a bit run down, the facilities are excellent.

Victoria has great links to the South and especially Gatwick which makes it so popular. Also if you have to wait for a train there are plenty of shops to stop off at and there is even a small shopping centre upstairs.

The facility on a whole has many retail outlets, newsagents and food stores including 2 Mcdonalds. The only downside to Victoria is the fact that they charge a small fee for using the toilets, if you are ever planning on going, make sure you have small change.

I used this station to connect to Gatwick airport. There are usually trains leaving every 10-15 minutes and these go from the direct (gatwick express) to the slower commuters that stop a few times before Gatwick. Even on the slow trains you should take no more than 30 minutes to be in the Airport.
If you have some time to waste or if you need any last minute shopping, you will find plenty of it here.

Victoria Station is a London hub for Southern services (to Brighton and points south) and South East Trains, going to (I think) Kent and, unsurprisingly, points South East. When I worked in Victoria, I caught the Southern services to Clapham Junction, but also travelled to Bognor Regis on Southern.

The station is split into two distinct halves (though fully connected) - I suspect this is historical, and the two were once treated as different stations. The older looking half serves South East, and the newer looking bit is Southern. You can, however, get departure information from boards on both sides for the other side.

Victoria has a lot of shops, both downstairs on the concourse level and upstairs on a dedicated shopping and eating level. I’m not a big fan of the upstairs, as it is a bit dingy, but if you are stopping at Victoria for any length of time, it does allow you to pick up bits and pieces, and do some shopping and eating.

It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that the Victoria line runs under the station - the entrances and exits from the underground lines get VERY crowded during rush hours, and are worth avoiding if at all possible.

The front of the station is taken up by a bus station, thus making negotiation entertaining some times.

All in all, this is yet another London rail station, though, unlike Waterloo, does have substantial shopping facilities. Nevertheless, the shopping areas are a bit tired, and would benefit from some refurb.

As a kid I stayed in the big old railway hotel that has its entrance/exit straight into the station concourse. Must have been the Great Southern I think.
The place is a lot cleaner and brighter since those days. There is a large shopping thing on the main concourse and another separate large shopping centre up the escalators, where you can also find a supermarket (I think it’s a sainsbury’s) so you don’t have to eat expensive junk food if you don’t want to.
I think the reason we used to stay here was because we were travelling down to Dover to get the Seacat to Boulogne or Ostend, i don’t know if they still do those tickets from ehre, but I do know the Dover train was very slow indeed.
Best thing about Victoria is undoubtedly the Gatwick Express, available in variously priced versions depending on how disorganised you’ve been in getting to the station, from platforms 16, 17, 18, the furthest platforms, so sprint from the tube and head past the escalators (not up them though) if you’re in a hurry.