London & Croydon Railway

The London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) was an early railway in England. It opened in 1839 and in July 1846 merged with other railways to form the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR).

The Surrey Iron Railway had been opened in 1806 between Wandsworth and Croydon; it was a plateway operating on the toll principle, in which carriers could move wagons with their own horses. However the Surrey Iron Railway's terminal on the Thames was rather far west and sea-going vessels were discouraged from connecting with it.

Edge railways using locomotive traction represented a clear technological advance, marked particularly by the (1825) and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830), and promoters put forward a scheme to link Croydon, then an industrial town, with London. The Croydon Canal of 1809 was moribund, and it was proposed purchase it and to utilise its course. It was to extend northwards from the Croydon Canal terminal at New Cross, so as to make a junction at Corbetts Lane (then spelt Corbets Lane), in Bermondsey with the London and Greenwich Railway; its trains were to run over that line to its London Bridge station.

The engineer Joseph Gibbs surveyed the route; this involved complex judgments, and is described below. The Company obtained an authorising Act of Parliament on 12 June 1836. The line was 8¾ miles (14 km) long and at the southern end followed the alignment of the Croydon Canal from Anerley to a terminus at Croydon, with a locomotive depot, on the site of the canal basin. This was later to be developed to the present-day West Croydon station.

The Greenwich company intended that its proposed London Bridge terminus would accommodate trains of several other companies and had acquired land sufficient for the purpose; at this time however it had inadequate funds to carry out the actual construction, and the Croydon company was obliged to do the work itself, taking some of the Greenwich company's land on the north side for the purpose, obtaining the necessary Parliamentary powers on 14 July 1836. At this stage the Greenwich line had not yet been opened into London Bridge: this was completed on 1 December 1836.

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