Victoria Station (London) |
Victoria Station
Victoria station is a London Underground
and railway station in London, in the
City of Westminster.
The eastern side, comprising platforms 1 - 8 services Kent, and the western side
comprising platforms 9 - 19 is the terminus for lines running from Surrey and Sussex, including Gatwick Airport
and Brighton.
The London Underground station lies to the north of the
mainline station concourse. There are two ticket halls. The hall closer to the mainline station serves the Victoria Line. The other, further north along a tunnel, serves the District and Circle
Lines.
Victoria Coach Station is half a mile south-west of
the railway stations. It is the main London coach terminal and serves all parts of the
UK.
History
Victoria station was originally two stations, the eastern one for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company and the western for the London, Brighton, and
South Coast Railway. The London, Chatham and Dover station is in a Edwardian
style with baroque elements, designed by Alfred Bloomfield and completed
in the 1908-10 period. The London, Brighton, and South Coast building, completed in 1898,
is in a similar style, albeit in red brick rather than white stone. These stations replaced two built in 1858 and 1861.
The stations were merged in 1924 when a passage from one to the other was created by
removing part of a screen wall. The architecture of the two stations is clearly visible from outside. The station was redeveloped
internally in the 1980s, with the addition of shops within the concourse, and above the
western platforms.
The Victoria underground line didn't come to Victoria Station until the third phase of construction of the line - the
station's platforms were opened on March 7, 1969, six months after the Victoria line had started running in outer London.
External links
|