Victoria Station, Victoria, London

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.

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.

Before moving to the other side of London, this was the London terminal which I used most often. Since it serves huge swathes of south London, Kent and Sussex, it inevitably suffers from appalling overcrowding during peak times, particularly at the tube entrances and exits.

However, Victoria does have some saving graces-particularly its shopping centre located on the level above the platforms, where you can buy anything from health food to jewellery.

I find the food outlets in the station itself overpriced, although obviously they have a captive audience. After dark the station is reasonably safe as long as you keep your wits about you. If you want to avoid the high prices for food in the station, there is a supermarket just across the road, as well as an assortment of small cafes and restaurants.

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.

Victoria was where the boat trains left from during my Interrail-ing days in the 1970s, and although its now my commuter station, it still feels glamorous to me.

Its in two very distinct parts, for no very clear reason, and each part has maybe eight platforms, but the departure boards will show all trains, of course.

There are many, many cafes and food shops on the concourse, and if you have to wait a longer period of time, there’s a food court up escalators to the far right of nearly all the platforms.

One of my favourite shops is The Cheese Shop - cheese! Fresh cheese, in almost all its forms, with rolls, sandwiches, and some lovely chutneys and jams and so on.

There’s a medical centre, which for the level of throughput it has, is essential, and not only toilets, but also showers, which are also essential - many’s the returning traveller who’s taken an hour longer on the journey to spend some time in a shower. Just have some coins available.

As this is the station I come into everyday for work I usually pass straight through it onto the tube or visa versa onto the train without taking too much notice. However Southern Trains have a knack for being late so its given me some time to wander round the station a number of times.

The building itself is good to look at and always seems to have people milling about it at all hours. I think the first Gatwick express train leaves around 3am. There are the overground trains as well as the Victoria, District and Circle lines. Another thing I discovered recently are the buses outside. There are a number of routes that go in various directions and recently I found the number 2 bus goes to my office should I not fancy fighting my way onto the tube.

In the station itself there is almost every food variety you could want. All the main coffee brands are there, two pubs, various sandwich shops, fast foods, and a great Sushi place on the main concourse.

All in all its not a bad station to commute into daily.

Between about 4 and 7 on a weekday evening and 730 and 10 on a weekday evening, this is arguably one of the most unpleasant places to be in all of London. There are just more people than space, and more bad tempers than anyone would have thought possible to assemble in one place. There are bags and elbows flying about all over the place, and if your not prepared to get a balck eye or a bruised shin, then its definately one to avoid at these times!
There are alot of bars and places to get food, books and general traveling bits and bobs and it is a beautiful station…just not during rush hour!

The sort of station that would look superb taken by a professional photographer in black and white, an amazingly designed station, but it’s downhill from there.

2 words - commuter hell - describe it perfectly. Heaving every morning, unbelievably hot, sweaty and crowded, then add into this the Victoria Line tube shutting regularly every morning because of overcrowding (I swear I’ll never ever ever go on it again at 8.30am - I’d sooner walk).

If you can humanly (or should that be humanely) avoid it, don’t even think of coming before 10am. The reviewer who said it’s never that busy - she’s probably the night shift cleaner - it’s never not busy!

That said, if retail is your thing, browse through the also hot, sweaty and crowded station versions of WHSmith or Burger King. Even the station forecourt runs along similar lines - dirty and smelly. Get my drift yet?

Avoid. If. You. Can.

P.s. If you’re there for the Gatwick Express, get straight on the train, don’t queue - tickets are the same price onboard.

Victoria station is a mess of people, walking into each other, trying to get to their platform. It is sorely in need of renovation to expand the premises and building to accommodation the people traffic, and the trains.

Ticketing for underground travel is outside in a crowded temporary building with lines that stretch into the passageway.

I knew it all too well in the 1940s and 50s as the terminus for the boat trains to the Channel for the Continental ferries, including the Night Ferry through sleepers to Paris. It was always an architectural mess because of the way it had been patched together from the heritage of several different railways companies plus the Underground, and it was very difficult to find people if you had to meet them there. Still, the ‘intermodal’ facility of the large London Transport bus terminus in the forecourt was an advantage.

I have very little to say about Victoria Station… but I’ll say it anyway!
It’s incredibly busy in the mornings and afternoon/evening (i.e. that time of day when you really just want to get home/to work without battling tourists and commuters) - to the point where you can spend 3 - 6 minutes just trying to get in or out of the ticket barriers. Once you’re out you are then confronted with the heaving crowd of people standing, waiting for their trains, who must must must stand right in front of the barriers - God forbid they might not be first on their train to Clapham Junction that leaves every three minutes.

It’s clean, and the shops aren’t bad - I’ll give it that - and it would have gotten 3 stars… but I’m sorry, I know there’s inflation and everything… but upping the price of going to the toilet from 20p to 30p is just ridiculous. I don’t use 30p’s worth of toilet paper!!

Rant over (and sorry… but twice a day is just… too much) :)

Nice Station - shame about the trains!
One of the busiest stations in the country Victoria is very well provided for facilities. The toilets (well to be fair I can only speak about the Gents are clean with more than enough cubicles) there’s a Boots a WHSmithand any number of food shops - and that’s all on the ground floor before you take the escalator up to the main shopping area.

The only downside has to be, well - the trains! Delays are too common and even getting your ticket is a hassle, massive queues at the ticket office. Then when you head to your platform there’s invariably three or four members of staff leaning indolently against the barriers- what’s that all about?

When it’s crowded, it sucks. When it’s not crowded, it’s kinda creepy. Great location and bless ‘em for the Gatwick Express, but I really prefer not having to pass through Victoria Station.

Despite being steeped in history, it's very easy to miss it all when you're actually trying to use Victoria station to get anywhere. It's simply far too busy for my liking, and walking/running across the vast concourse is akin to a game of 'British Bulldog'. After reading dmj1962's review, I'll certainly take more note of my surroundings next time, although gazing at the architecture is probably a dangerous game at rush hour!

Practically - this is where you get the Gatwick Express from - you don't need to buy a ticket before you board the train, so don't mess about queuing.

The Victoria line runs through here and is one of the fastest ways to get about in London - you can be in Euston/Kings Cross/St Pancras stations in a few minutes from here.

It can be challenging to find a decent pub in the area - perhaps this should be the subject of a new Qype list!

John Betjeman described Victoria station as, ‘London’s most conspicuous monument to commercial rivalry’, referring to the fact that there are actually two distinct station at Victoria, side by side. Although modern redevelopment over the platforms has obscured this division, the brick arches above W H Smiths still separate the station into two distinct parts. Each has been partially rebuilt during its life, giving Victoria no fewer than four different styles of architecture!

The first station on the site, dating from 1860, was built by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR), and incorporated the Grosvenor Hotel as part of the terminus. Designed by the architect J T Knowles, this is one of the earliest railway hotels and, despite internal alterations, still retains much of its original splendour. The exterior is well preserved, in an Italianate style, with dressings in Bath stone, and French-style mansard roofs. The hotel (opened in 1861) is now the oldest surviving part of the original station.

The original LBSCR terminus alongside the hotel was rebuilt in a grand red-brick Renaissance style in 1898, and features a central clock tower and glass portico over the cab road, both of which still exist. Underneath, the passages retain the original maps of the old LBSCR as an historical feature. Behind is what is now the spacious main concourse, retaining its original roof.

Unfortunately, the continuation of this roof over platforms 9-19 has disappeared, to make way for the Victoria Place shopping development and offices. This renders the platforms below rather cramped and claustrophobic. But services from here still go the original LBSCR destinations – Brighton and the South Coast (via Gatwick Airport) and suburban services to Croydon, Streatham, Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs, Beckenham Junction and Sutton.

In 1862, the LBSCR station was joined by that of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, since known – for obvious reasons – as the Continental side. Before the advent of the Channel Tunnel, trains for Dover and Ramsgate departed from here to meet the boat trains. The famous ‘Golden Arrow’ and ‘Night Ferry’ service even crossed the channel, by a specially adapted ferry complete with railway tracks, onto which the carriages were shunted, to be pulled off on the French side.

The London, Chatham and Dover's original 1862 building has survived untouched on the far side behind platform 2. Once the main entrance, this is a handsome three-storey structure in the classical Georgian style. The original and elegant train-shed over platforms 1-8 by Sir John Fowler also survives, now mostly sheltering suburban trains to the Medway towns, Bromley, Crystal Palace, Orpington and Sevenoaks. It comprises two spans, one of 127ft by 455ft, and the other of 129ft by 385ft. You can get an excellent view of this from the balcony of the Wetherspoons pub.

By the turn of the century, the London, Chatham and Dover railway had been absorbed by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, and the modest original terminus was no longer viewed as sufficiently grand, especially next to the new LBSCR building. So the frontage of the Continental side was rebuilt in 1908 in a grand ‘Banker’s Baroque’ style in Portland stone, by the architect A W Bloomfield. This features huge female caryatids under classical broken pediments, and a grand entrance arch. It still carries the words ‘Southern Railway’ across the top, reflecting the merger of the two former rival companies in 1924 - which also unified the station properly for the first time.

To-day, the station is one of London’s (and Europe’s) busiest, with over 115 million passengers passing through each year, and over 350,000 each week-day. The adjacent underground station on the District, Circle and Victoria lines deals with 80 million passengers a year – the second busiest in London after King’s Cross / St Pancras.

Facilities – apart from the dizzying array of shops and bars – include showers (and baby-changing facilities, alongside the toilets), wi-fi access (BT and T-mobile), a bureau de change, a shoe-shine, secure left luggage facilities and bicycle storage. Rarely for a London terminus, there is also an NCP car-park at the station, accessed from Eccleston Bridge Road. Walk up to and through the Victoria Place shopping centre and there is also another cab road, which is less hectic than the one at the front of the station. The Network Rail site has an excellent map of the station and its facilities.

Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. That's all i can say. You really don't want to get caught in rush hour at Victoria station. Londoners tend to turn the entire station into a sweaty scrummage after 5pm on weekdays. It's just a case of too many people trying to get through too small a space. Hard to find a solution really other than build a bigger station and make it more efficient. Like Moonrising, I agree, having to pay for the toilets here is pretty ridiculous. Ok, i'm sure it keeps the tramps out, but i really can't be bothered to fish around my pockets for 20p when i'm bursting for a wee!

In Victoria stations defence, they have a great selection of fast food places (including Krispy Kreme's), the trains 'tend' to run on time a bit better these days AND the Gatwick Express is brilliant. London to Gatwickin about 35 mins. Brilliant.

While this may be in reality be a pretty old building, in this very busy station the modern dominates. The great expanse of the station is invariably full of rushing people. It’s ringed round with the usual suspects as far as shops are concerned: McDonalds to W H Smiths, and a good few sandwich and coffee bars.

The bus station is out at the front of the station. Around the entrances you’ll also find stairs down to the tube. Inside, if you cross the waiting area and head diagonally right you’ll see some escalators ahead. These head up to a pedestrian mall, with more shops (including another McDonalds…), and eateries on the upper level. Through the door at the far end and beyond you are heading towards coach station country.

One of the things I find most annoying about Victoria is that there are no free toilets. Even the ones in the mall are paid. Apparently you can get into those free if you have a receipt from one of the snack bars. But personally if I’ve just got off the train or coach, I don’t want to have to buy my McDonalds (or whatever!) before going in the loo. What are you supposed to do? Hold it while you eat or take your meal in with you? Anyway, other than having to make sure you have some cash, the facilities are good. It’s not London’s prettiest station, but it does the job.

Victoria station is one of my favourites as it has everything to offer but its never over crowded like most big stations.It has lots of shops and eating out places.The other day i was going to a photoshoot and the tights that i was wearing were laddered so i was really stressed as i only had 8 mins to catch my train so i quickly ran into accessorize grabbed some and jumped on my train.It was perfect i felt like wonder women!