Best Restaurants, Bars and Things to Do in Victoria, London

About Victoria

Victoria's food scene is better than its reputation. The area around the station itself is not the point of interest, but the streets that fan out from it toward Belgravia, Pimlico and Westminster contain a range of restaurants and cafes that have nothing to do with commuter trade and everything to do with serving a residential and office population that eats out regularly.

The neighbourhood has benefited from the general improvement in London's food culture and from the specific development of Pimlico and the streets around Eccleston Place, which have become a genuine destination for people who know the area. The proximity to Westminster also means there are long-established restaurants and clubs that serve a specific kind of regular clientele and do so to a consistently high standard.

Lets Discover creators who cover Victoria tend to know the area's less obvious corners and their picks reflect a neighbourhood that rewards exploration away from the main station drag.

The streets immediately around Victoria Station are less interesting from a food perspective than the blocks running outward from it. Eccleston Place and the streets connecting Victoria to Belgravia have developed a cluster of well-regarded independent restaurants and wine bars that operate entirely separately from the station economy. Pimlico Road, which runs south through the residential blocks toward the river, has its own concentration of neighbourhood restaurants and delicatessens that serve a local population. Elizabeth Street in Belgravia, just a short walk from the station, is one of the better streets in this part of London for independent food shops, bakeries and cafes. The areas around Horseferry Road and the streets closer to Westminster have a more office-focused character during the week but contain some worthwhile venues.

History and culture in Victoria

Victoria takes its name from Victoria Station, which opened in 1860 as the London terminus of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and became one of the busiest railway stations in the country. The surrounding neighbourhood developed rapidly in the second half of the 19th century as the station brought workers, travellers and commerce to an area that had previously been largely marshland and market gardens. The Westminster Cathedral, the mother church of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, was built in the Byzantine Revival style between 1895 and 1903 and remains one of Victoria's most significant landmarks. The Tate Britain gallery, opened in 1897 on the former site of Millbank Prison on the Thames embankment, houses the national collection of British art and is one of the area's major cultural institutions. Victoria's character as a transit neighbourhood has always shaped its identity, but the residential streets of Pimlico to the south and Belgravia to the north have given the wider area a more settled and domestic quality.