London Victoria station- 2 hours free time before theatre show with teenagers, any good suggestions on how to spend the time?

[QueenCoconut]

We are visiting London this Saturday, arriving at Victoria station around midday. We have booked a nice cafe for lunch and then we have 2 hours to kill before a theatre show. It’s my DD birthday trip, her and her two friends are coming and we would like to let them go shopping and exploring on their own before the show. They are 17.
They love books, art, design and are also into comics, anime, manga. They don’t enjoy clothes/ make up shopping and they’ll already have eaten by that time so I‘m excluding these options. Are there any good interesting shopping areas, markets that they would enjoy? Perhaps any specialist shops or a nice interesting museum? Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Where is the theatre?

If they love art and design, Shepherds is a rather beautiful and inspiring place store.bookbinding.co.uk/store/

Take the district & circle 2 stops to South Kensington and go to the Korea exhibition at the V&A!

www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/hallyu-the-korean-wave

It’s in Palace Street, 5 min walk from Victoria

This looks lovely, thank you ! They’ll love the book binding materials, they can spend hours in book stores.

Yes, I second the Korea exhibit at the V&A, which is ticketed event. But there's loads to see on the art and design front at V&A which is free. Also V&A has a very nice shop.

I did consider V&A but wasn’t sure if they’d be interested - had no idea that the Korea exhibition was on. Definitely adding it to the list of things to suggest to them, thank you.

If the weather's nice, it is usually quite pleasant to wander around St James's Park.

From memory, I think there are actually quite a lot of shops in Victoria station.

Just thinking, you might want to be careful with timings, as "2 hours free" could easily be taken up with travelling, queuing etc if you go too far.
I would recommend walking through Green Park, past the Ritz and Fortnums (always great for admiring the Easter eggs at this time of year) and then nip to the massive Waterstones on Piccadilly. (Europe's largest book store, at least 5 storeys, it will be heaving). The art books department will have them in raptures, ditto graphic novels.
As you are walking, it's easier to calculate how long it will take you to return, which leads to a more relaxing experience.
The Yayoi Kusama robot in the window of Louis Vuitton on New Bond St is also close and worth a quick diversion, it is very clever and unnerving.
Enjoy!

Tate Britain? Short Tube ride from Victoria - one stop, I think.

Or the galleries and big Waterstones at Traf. Square, but two hours isn't really very long to do anything in, when you have to allow time for travel, getting into the theatre, finding your seats etc.

There are shops at Vic Station, but nothing very special. There isn't that much to do around there.

Agree St James's Park is nice, but not if it's a cold day.

If they like comics etc you could get the 38 bus(should take about 20/25 mins) down to Forbidden Planet forbiddenplanet.com/
It's a massive shop that sells comics, manga, books and loads of related clothing, figurines, gifts etc basically nerdy heaven!!

There are more shops in Cardinal Place (modern shopping centre, sort of diagonally across from Victoria station. But if the teens aren't really into shopping then I also think V&A would be best, although you won't have long there - allow 30 minutes each way for travel, so 1 hour max inside.

I was going to suggest Forbidden Planet too but it's worth remembering that 2 hours can go quickly. Public transport in London can actually be very slow and often takes longer than you think to get anywhere. You don't want to go to far from Victoria.

Flight club Victoria? We spent a fun few hours with teens there recently.

Camden market is only 15min by tube from Victoria.
The Stables and Lock markets are the best bits.
Theyd probably enjoy Cyberdog.
www.camdenmarket.com

I came to say this, I'm going to it next month and can't wait.

Definitely Forbidden Planet if your show is in the West End, you'll only be a short walk away and your anime fans will love you forever. The entire basement is a trove of graphic novels, comics and manga with plenty of merch to enjoy upstairs too and you can often see self-conscious teens wandering around in cosplay there. It's a perfect pitstop.

(You're also within a few minutes walk of Covent Garden for some entertaining mooching about if you decode to go to FP)

*decide

I agree - Forbidden Planet will be perfect, plus time for a coffee or something before the show. 2 hours isn’t much if you have to get back to Victoria etc

The Saatchie gallery - this looks really good?

www.saatchigallery.com/exhibition/pages/exhibition_pages_beyond_the_streets_london

I've been on the 38 from Vic to TC Rd. Its not a quick journey. I think getting the bus, having time to spend in FP, getting the bus back again, having a coffee, getting into the theatre, going to the loo, and getting settled into seats with time to spare, all within two hours, is attempting too much, epecially if a group of 17 yos unfamiliar with London are going to be doing it on their own.

Anything involving a bus or Tube journey, you have to factor in walking to and from the bus stop or tube station, waiting for the bus or train, getting in and out of the station, all of which adds to journey time.

Letting a group of 17yos loose to explore is OK, but they should have a day just for that purpose.

Shepherd's bookbinders doesn't really have any actual books to read. It does have chiyogami paper though and beautiful cards and empty journals and diarys. Maybe 20 mins tops.
There is a Bone Daddies (ramen) branch across the road from station, and Crosstown Donuts.

We went to see Heathers recently which is round there and just came out of Victoria and headed north and there were loads of places to wander round.