From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Vauxhall was a mixed industrial and residential area, of predominantly manual workers' homes – many demolished and replaced by Lambeth Council with social housing after the Second World War – and business premises, including large railway, gas, and water works.

As in neighbouring Battersea and Nine Elms, riverside redevelopment has converted most former industrial sites into residential properties and new office space.

[5] Competing theories are given as to why the Russian word for a central railway station is вокзал (vokzal), which coincides with the canonical 19th-century transliteration of "Vauxhall".

This was further embellished into a story that Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, visiting London in 1844, was taken to see the trains at Vauxhall and made the same mistake.

Alternatively, the locality of the L&SWR's original railway terminus, Nine Elms Station, was shown boldly and simply as "Vauxhall" in the 1841 Bradshaw timetable.

This line ran from Saint Petersburg via Tsarskoye Selo to Pavlovsk Palace, where extensive pleasure gardens had earlier been established.

The word voksal (воксал) had been known in the Russian language with the meaning of "amusement park" long before the 1840s and may be found, e.g. in the poetry of Aleksandr Pushkin: На гуляньях иль в воксалах / Легким зефиром летал ("To Natalie" (1813): "At fêtes or in voksals, /I've been flitting like a gentle Zephyrus" [here "Zephyrus" is an allegory of a gentle, warm and pleasant wind ]) According to Vasmer, the word is first attested in the Saint Petersburg Vedomosti for 1777 in the form фоксал, which may reflect the earlier English spelling of Fox Hall/Faukeshall.

The area originally formed part of the extensive manor of South Lambeth, which was held by the family of de Redvers,[7] feudal barons of Plympton in Devon and Lords of the Isle of Wight.

[8] In 1317 King Edward II granted the manor of Vauxhall, Surrey, to Sir Roger d'Amory for his "good services" at the Battle of Bannockburn.

The explosion in London property prices during the late 1990s and early 2000s has led to a boom in riverside construction, such as the large St George Wharf development by Vauxhall Bridge.

Some 18th- and 19th-century properties also survive – most famously Bonnington Square, a community that emerged from the 1970s–1980s squat scene in London and remains as mostly housing co-operatives today.

In recent years, the building has come under constant threat of buyout and demolition from property developers, as it stands alone on a prime piece of grassland adjacent to Vauxhall railway station.

[15] Over the years, more clubs and gay businesses have followed Crash's lead by opening up in the railway arches underneath the main line out of Waterloo station.

One of the most notable venues to open in the area is Fire night club, which is located on Parry Street and currently occupies ten arches.

The tactics used in the raid (namely photographing all the persons leaving the venue) were strongly criticised by the gay press at the time.

However, the market has become more and more lucrative with the arrival of more venues and more nights, and Vauxhall has been criticised as becoming increasingly commercial, diluting its once underground appeal.

There is also a river bus service operated by Thames Clippers at Vauxhall (St George Wharf) Pier, enabling passengers to travel east to Greenwich and Barking, or west to Putney.

[19] In addition to public transport, Vauxhall is accessible by major roads and the Thames Path pedestrian and bicycle trail.

Work has involved design changes to traffic lanes, improved pedestrian and cycle crossings, refurbishment of walkways beneath the mainline railway viaduct, and the construction of a bus station, completed in December 2004 featuring an undulating steel-frame canopy and ribbed steel walls.

An interesting feature of the canopy is a series of photoelectric cells generating electricity to offset the energy used by the bus station.

Vauxhall Cross bus station will be redeveloped to create a new mixed-use development consisting of offices, hotels, and shopping areas.

[21] Vauxhall Park[22] contains an area of miniature model houses (also in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne) as well as tennis courts, day care in the "one o'clock club", and children's playground.