Victoria is a London Underground station in Victoria, London, sitting adjacent to the mainline station. It is served by three lines: Circle, District and Victoria. It is the station on the Underground, and is made up of two separate component parts occupying different levels on the tube network, and built over a century apart from each other. The earlier section serves the Circle and District lines, while the later one serves the Victoria line. There are two individual ticket halls, and a link between them.
The first tube station was constructed in 1868 by the District Railway, extended to serve the Outer Circle and Middle Circle services during the 19th century. The Victoria line portion of the station was proposed in the 1940s, opening in 1969. As a result of increased traffic, the station was extensively rebuilt in the early 21st century to satisfy passenger demands.
History
Victoria railway station first opened in 1860, as part of efforts to provide a more convenient railway termini for railways south of London. It is located in Victoria in the City of Westminster, south of Victoria Street, east of Buckingham Palace Road and west of Vauxhall Bridge Road. The railway station is named after the nearby Victoria Street.
Circle and District lines
thumb|left|Circle and District line platforms
The first part of the Underground station was opened on 24 December 1868 by the District Railway (DR, now the District line) when the company opened the first section of its line, between and . The DR connected to the Metropolitan Railway (MR, later the Metropolitan line) at South Kensington and, although the two companies were rivals, each company operated trains over the other's tracks in a joint service known as the "Inner Circle". The line was operated by steam locomotives, creating the necessity to leave periodic gaps open to the air.
On 1 February 1872, the DR opened a northward branch from to the West London Extension Joint Railway (WLEJR, now the West London Line) at Addison Road (now Kensington (Olympia)). From that date the "Outer Circle" service began running over the DR. The service was run by the North London Railway (NLR) from Broad Street (now demolished) in the City of London via the North London Line to , then the West London Line to Addison Road and the DR to , the new eastern terminus of the DR.
From 1 August 1872, the "Middle Circle" service also began operation through Victoria, from Moorgate along the MR on the north side of the Inner Circle to Paddington, then over the Hammersmith & City Railway (H&CR) to Latimer Road and then to Mansion House. On 30 June 1900, the Middle Circle service was withdrawn between Earl's Court and Mansion House, with the Outer Circle service following on 31 December 1908.
The original DR station was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century, initially as a single-storey structure to the design of architect George Campbell Sherrin. An office building was built above it later. The line was electrified in 1905. In 1949, the Inner Circle route was given its own identity on the tube map as the Circle line.
Victoria line
Plans for the route that eventually became the Victoria line date from the 1940s. A proposal for a new underground railway line linking north-east London with the centre was included in the County of London Plan in 1943. Between 1946 and 1954, a series of routes were proposed by different transport authorities to connect various places in south and north or north-east London. Each of these connected the three main-line termini at King's Cross, Euston and Victoria.