The Victoria Coach Station
Coach station and offices, originally incorporating shops and a restaurant. 1931-2
by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners for London Coastal Coaches Ltd
The 1963 extension to the east block (No. 172 Buckingham Palace Road), the canopy to the north-west of the yard, and lean-to structures on the yard elevation of the east block, are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.
Long-distance travel by motor bus originated in either 1904 or 5 (sources differ) when the Vanguard Omnibus Co. operated buses between London and Brighton, a venture which ended abruptly amid safety concerns after a fatal bus crash near Brighton in July 1906. A few short-lived enterprises apart, long-distance travel was rare before WWI; more common were small operators running day excursions out of coastal resorts in open charabancs. Recreational coach travel burgeoned after WWI, when army-surplus vehicles were plentiful, and a number of small concerns sprang up in urban centres nationally, offering vehicles for private hire for seaside day outings for factory and office workers, social clubs and the like. The first purpose-built coach station was at Blackpool (1921) but early ‘stations’ were usually rudimentary affairs, often a garage or yard. The industry expanded rapidly in the early 1920s with major improvements in motor technology, including the arrival of pneumatic tyres in 1924, and faster, more sophisticated vehicles. This fiercely competitive period also saw the shift from small independent operators to larger companies, themselves often subsidiaries of conglomerates, and from seasonal day excursions to year-round long-distance journeys. By 1930, a national network of express services was in place, with stations often co-located with local bus stations; at Bournemouth (1928), for example, the omnibus and Royal Blue coach station were combined on two levels. Purpose-built coach stations opened in London 1929 at Kings Cross and Clapham Road, and in 1930 in Poland Street. After the regulation of coach services under the Road Traffic Act (1930) which made licensing compulsory, many operators bought, or combined with, competitors and smaller concerns virtually disappeared.
Victoria’s ascendancy as London’s main hub for coach travel began on Easter Sunday 1919 when local motor trader Len Turnham ran a charabanc from Grosvenor Gardens to Brighton, a successful venture offering affordable fares for war-weary Londoners seeking seaside air. In 1920 the haulage company Pickford’s, which ran a south-coast charabanc service from High Holborn, invited Turnham to form a pool with other London operators. Named London & Coastal, the participants - nine in all - apportioned their profits according to mileage operated, a pragmatic and increasingly common practice in the industry. It was incorporated as a single company - London Coastal Coaches Ltd (LCCL) - on 30 April 1925, by now offering services to resorts on the south, Kent and East Anglian coasts. Passengers alighted at kerbside loading points, a practice unsatisfactory on several counts, and in 1929 LCCL acquired a two-acre site in Lupus Street from the London County Council; by 1930 over a dozen other national operators were using it as their London terminus. Held on a short lease and consisting of an open yard with utilitarian structures, this was only a temporary solution and in 1930 a 1.25 acre site in Buckingham Palace Road, for which an abortive scheme had already been drawn up by another London operator, Coach Travels, was acquired, and Wallis Gilbert & Partners, leading specialists in industrial buildings which had recently completed the Firestone and Pyrene factories in Brentford, were appointed as architects with Oscar Faber as the consulting engineer. Opening on 10 March 1932, the new station comprised a ground-floor booking hall, shops and buffet, and a lounge bar and 200-seat restaurant at mezzanine and first-floor levels. The rest of the first floor was the company offices of LCCL, with offices for private lets above. Behind this huge frontage, the station yard accommodated 76 vehicles. Although Victoria was the largest of its type, press attention focused on the architectural treatment, noting the ‘original and bold colour scheme’ which included alternating bands of green and black faience contrasting with red faience lettering; the entrance feature finished in white cement with coloured glass; these features no longer survive.
By 1939 LCCL had acquired most of the independent operators of services to and from London, offering destinations in most parts of England and Wales. Coach travel was curtailed in WWII and after war-time requisition, services resumed at Victoria in March 1946, LCCL having kept itself afloat by income from the private lets. The post-war period saw further growth, not least the advent of continental travel in the 1950s. A large block was added on the west in 1963, designed by TP Bennett & Son, which incorporated a new coach entrance. In 1970 LCCL became a subsidiary of the National Bus Company, and in 1988 ownership was transferred to London Transport.
[Historic England]
Taken during Open House
(06 – 17 September 2023)
