ARTS AND MINDS
Victoria Rules!
Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament are all right here. But that doesn’t mean SW1 culture is just about monarchs and politicians. CHris Kilvington delves a little deeper.
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ictoria really does rule for tourist attractions. And central Victoria can lay claim to being the home of some of the most famous sights of interest in the world – not just in the UK. Buckingham Palace (royal.gov. uk) is an obvious place to sneak a peek at royal living, with its State Rooms, Royal Collection, Queen’s Gallery, and the chance to watch the marching guards through the palace railings. Horse Guard’s Parade lets you get up close to the cavalry – literally, eye to eye, if you like. Plus there’s Big Ben towering above the Palace of Westminster – better known as the Houses of Parliament (parliament.org) – stunning Westminster Cathedral on Victoria Street (westminstercathedral.org.uk), and Westminster Abbey (westminster-abbey. org) on Parliament Square, which has close connections to the royal family.
This page: Buckingham Palace; Programme seller at Apollo Victoria’s Wicked; The Houses of Parliament and BA London Eye are within easy walking distance of Victoria; One of the mosaics that adorn the Catholic Westminster Cathedral; Tate Britain at Millbank.
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But, what about the other cultural gems of SW1? Well, park yourself with the buses in Terminus Place in front of Victoria Station and you will be able to spot the area’s two major playhouses, The Apollo Victoria Theatre (apollovictoria. co.uk) and the Victoria Palace Theatre (victoriapalacetheatre.co.uk). With the
capacity to hold 2,200 people, the Apollo Victoria can seat one of the London’s biggest theatre audiences. The building began life as an art-deco “super-cinema” in 1930, re-emerging as a theatre only at the beginning of the 1980s. It was the 18-year venue for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express, which inevitably brought about a major internal refit to cater for the multi-tier roller-skating show. Since turfing out the rollerbooters, it has staged Bombay Dreams, Saturday Night Fever and, since 2006, the Broadway show Wicked. Across the way, The Victoria Palace Theatre has stood almost a century longer than its showbiz compatriot, in situ well before the arrival of electricity and the railways. The building opened in 1832 as the capital’s first music hall, Moy’s Music Hall. Since then, it has been demolished and rebuilt twice, but it has still managed to retain much of its character. Look up at the dome to see a replica statue of Anna Pavlova, the prima ballerina, which was added 70 years or so after the original was removed for safety reasons during the Blitz – then disappeared. The multi award-winning show Billy Elliot opened at the Palace in 2005. Away from the stage, Victoria’s major art
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