Look beyond the station: why Victoria is set to become one of London's best residential addresses

A £2.2 billion regeneration project is transforming this prime central London spot, realising its potential with luxury flats, top restaurants and cool shops.
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Emily Wright13 September 2017

Londoners don’t like to dawdle. It’s just not in our nature. When we commute we’re eyeing up the quickest, most direct route before you can say Citymapper. And for years, there have been few areas more frustrating to navigate than Victoria.

The station is one of the biggest and best-connected transport hubs in London but take a wrong turn as you step outside and before you know it, you are lost in a complex network of back streets lined with high-rise blocks — or face to face with a wall of dust and building machinery.

The latter, at least, is all part of a solution to the problem Victoria has struggled with for years: how to shake off its label as an enduring no-man’s-land.

Given its advantages of two Tube lines and main line rail, it is odd that the district has built up such a bad reputation for accessibility. Not even a prime central location, with the Thames to the south and the Royal Parks to the north, has been able to mitigate this albatross around Victoria’s neck.

Retail and office hub: Cardinal Place, near Victoria station
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It doesn’t help that the area is clumsily carved up by a number of choked-up main roads including Vauxhall Bridge Road between the station and the river and Buckingham Palace Road to the north.

Until recently, most of the food and shopping options were concentrated in Victoria Street, referred to by Mark Fisher of local commercial property agents Union Street Partners as “a Sixties canyon”. Historically an uninspiring area of government buildings, Victoria has done little to charm us. Until now…

BIRTH OF A HOTSPOT

Victoria is at last learning from its mistakes. The civil servants have moved out, bars and restaurants have moved in and residential developers are seeing the value of this central London location. Victoria is three years into a £2.2 billion regeneration project that could turn it into one of the hottest addresses north of the river.

As with any urban build, initial disruption means you can’t see the future for the dust. However, home buyers would do well to consider Victoria’s excellent transport links, proximity to some of the most coveted green space in the city, and fine new-build homes.

Traditionally, it has suffered from a basic lack of housing stock, usurped by neighbouring Pimlico and Belgravia. But Victoria’s major overhaul is starting to take shape in terms of new homes and a changing vibe for the whole district, with developer Landsec in the driving seat.

The regeneration is anchored by Nova, the 130,000sq ft mixed-use development completed last year.

From £720,000: studios and flats at Nova, Landsec’s signature development in Victoria. Call 020 8012 2684
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Unhelpfully voted ugliest building in the UK, taking the 2017 Carbuncle Cup, Nova is nevertheless Victoria’s vehicle for transformation, a £350 million game changer. Its 170 studios and flats are priced from £720,000 (call Garton Jones on 020 8012 2684), while its 18 headline restaurants include Timmy Green, Riding House Café and the high-end Aster.

Union Street Partners’ Fisher says the new restaurants “have elevated Victoria to new heights. It is definitely becoming more interesting and carving itself a place on the London map as a destination.”

Timmy Green: one of 18 top new restaurants at Victoria's new restaurant quarter, Nova Food

THE HIDDEN VICTORIA

But will Victoria ever feel like home? The trouble is, the high street slicing through its centre, and those tall, soulless office blocks hide the little streets of attractive Victorian terraces and elegant red-brick mansion blocks.

There are homely corner pubs, and the hugely well-received and popular local theatre The Other Palace — which opened five years ago as the St James Theatre — has a restaurant that’s packed every night, plus a jazzy basement cabaret café. “These are the parts of Victoria people forget,” says Fisher.

However, they are interesting to young professionals and also to empty nesters looking to downsize, and prospective home buyers should walk around them and take a look.

“Up towards Belgravia there are places hidden away down backstreets,” adds Fisher. “Not just homes but small, tucked-away bars and restaurants that are really much more for local people. They are the places that commuters and office workers wouldn’t stumble across. These are places with a much quieter, more community feel.”

From £1.5 million: Barratt three- and four-bedroom flats at Chapter Street, SW1 (0844 811 4321)

The mere mention of Belgravia is enough to fuel an obvious question around price. Victoria is in an SW1 postcode bordering some of the most expensive residential areas in the city. And while the juxtaposition between Victoria’s prime location and its rough diamond status led a Knight Frank agent to refer to it as “good value for money” back in 2014, an influx of new, luxury development has seen average prices soar to £1.7 million, Estates Gazette research shows.

This lofty figure is boosted by new homes at the likes of super-prime developer Northacre’s No.1 Palace Street project, with 72 apartments completing in 2019.

Homes are to be had for less eye-watering prices, including a studio at Grosvenor Waterside for £525,000 (Garton Jones, as before).

From £899,000: Westminster Quarter, 91 studios and flats with up to three bedrooms (020 3004 4434)

Taylor Wimpey’s Westminster Quarter flats start at £899,000 (call 020 3004 4434) and at Barratt’s Chapter Street, three- and four-bedroom homes start at £1.5 million (0844 811 4321).

Victoria is finding its way and home prices are keeping up the pace. Act now before the area reaches it’s full potential.

  • Emily Wright is features and global editor of Estates Gazette.