Victoria, London

Victoria is an informal area of inner city London, lying wholly within the City of Westminster, and named after Victoria of the United Kingdom.

The area is vaguely defined as the streets around, and named after Victoria Station, including Victoria Street (see below), the northern section of Buckingham Palace Road, Wilton Road, Grosvenor Gardens, Bressenden Place and Eccleston Street. The district consists predominantly of commercial property and social housing, with offices and shops lining most of the thoroughfares.

Victoria Street runs on an east-west axis from the station to Broad Sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. There is a new development, called Cardinal Walk (perhaps aptly located across the street from Westminster Cathedral), which 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, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform building, the headquarters of Transport for London at Windsor House and New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service.

History

Long before Cardinal Place opposite the Cathedral came into being there was a huge brewery (Stag Brewery) based at the southern 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' 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 sizable amount of staff. It closed down in 1959 and demolished. All that now remains of it is a street name Stag Place and a pub called the Stag.

Victoria Street originated in the 1850s - and its main thoroughfare lead to demolishing of slums. The station was built in 1861.

Archibald Leitch who was renowned for his work designing football stadiums including Anfield, Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, Ibrox and White Hart Lane amongst many others. His offices were based at 53 Victoria Street (they too are long gone).

According to his biography Norman Wisdom slept near the staue of Marshal Foch by the bus station at the westerly end of the street when his parents split up at the age of 9. [ [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/magazine.cfm?id=984202002 Norman Wisdom] ] Before going into comedy he worked as an errand boy in the then grand Artillery Mansions on Victoria Street which was then a grand hotel. In the 1980s it went into decay and became a squat - and in the 1990s was gutted, refurbished and now it an elegant apartment block.

The Victoria Palace Theatre has been in its present site since 1832. It was originally known as Moys music Hall but after Victoria station was built and the station it got demolished. It was demolished again in 1911 due to modernisation. It was most famous for a gold statue of Anna Pavlova which was above it. In 1939 it was removed and lost. A replica has recently been added. Infamously known as the home of the Crazy Gang and the Black and White Minstrels. It has hosted countless famous in the yearly Royal Variety Show. Most of the year it hosts musicals (its longest showing was Barnum) its latest being Billy Elliott.

Little Ben - a small 20ft version of Big Ben stands in a traffic island outside the Victoria Palace. was first erected in 1891 removed in 1963 and put back in 1981. It was given by the French company as a gift of anglo-french friendship. Its clock is always 1 hour ahead of GMTThe Apollo Victoria on Wilton Road was designed as a super Cinema in the art deco style in the 1930 and opened as the "New Victoria". It actually replaced an older Cinema on that site dating from 1911 called the "Victoria Picture Palace". The Cinema closed in 1975 and went through a number of incarnations (at one point it was called the Venue). In 1981 it opened with a concert by Shirley Bassey. After that it hosted a few musicals until 1984 when the roller musical Starlight Express which was the main event for 16 years. They then continued with a few musicals - Bombay Dreams, Saturday Night Fever - and its latest attraction is the musical Wicked.

The House of Fraser store in the middle of Victoria has been for most of its life known as the Army & Navy store. It opened in 1872 and sold groceries, clothes, various apparel and originally guns. It used to be open only to the most highest ranking elements of the armed forces and widows. This changed after 1922 when it was open to all. It has gradually shrunk in size. Its warehousing and depot area was sold to the Post Office, its staff car parking on Artillery Row was sold in the 1980s to make offices and its old food hall closed and is now a mini shopping concession mall. In 2005 it changed its name to House of Fraser.

Westminster Cathedral was built in 1903 filling a site previously occupied by the Tothill Fields Prison.

ee also

*Pimlico

References