The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway ran from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) at Norwood – which gives it access from London Bridge, just south of the River Thames in central London. It ran from Norwood to the South Coast at Brighton, together with a branch to Shoreham-by-Sea. Background During the English Regency, and particularly after the Napoleonic Wars, Brighton rapidly became a fashionable social resort, with more than 100,000 passengers being carried there each year by coach. Early schemes A proposal by William James in 1823 to connect London "with the ports of Shoreham (Brighton), Rochester (Chatham) and Portsmouth by a line of Engine Railroad" was largely ignored. However, about 1825 a company called The Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Wilts & Somerset Railway employed John Rennie to survey a route to Brighton, but again the proposal came to nothing. In 1829 Rennie was commissioned to survey two possible railway routes to Brighton. The first of these, via Dorking and Horsham and Shoreham was undertaken for him by Charles Blacker Vignoles, the other more direct route, via Croydon Redhill and Haywards Heath, was by Rennie himself. This latter route would have started at Kennington Park. However both of these schemes were abandoned due to lack of support in Parliament. These schemes were revived in 1835, which generated further proposals so that by 1836 there were six possible routes under consideration. These were: Rennie's direct route via Redhill and Haywards Heath but amended to make use of the London and Croydon Railway from London Bridge Henry Robinson Palmer's via Woldingham, Oxted and Lindfield (with a proposed link to Dover). Joseph Gibbs's from London Bridge via Croydon. Nicholas Wilcox Cundy's from Nine Elms, via Mitcham, Leatherhead, Dorking, Horsham and Shoreham. Charles Vignoles' from Elephant and Castle via Croydon, Merstham and Horsham. Robert Stephenson's from the London and Southampton Railway at Wimbledon, then via Epsom, Mickleham, Dorking, Horsham and Shoreham. Eventually it became a battle between the supporters of Rennie's direct route (which was the most difficult and expensive to build), and Stephenson's (which was longer but involved less civil engineering work). After prolonged campaigns by the supporters of the different proposals, a bill for Stephenson's route was approved by the House of Commons in 1836, but was later rejected by the House