London, Brighton and South Coast Railway closely involved with the company that purchased The Crystal Palace after the completion of The Great Exhibition in October 1851 and arranged for its removal to a site on Sydenham Hill, close to the London to Brighton main line, where it became a major tourist attraction. The LB&SCR therefore encouraged the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway to build a branch line from Sydenham, opened in June 1854. This was extended in a wide arc round south London to Wandsworth in 1856 and Battersea Pier in 1858. Shortly after the line was completed, the LB&SCR leased it and
Fountains in the United Kingdom new materials and technologies. The Crystal Fountain was the first of these fountains. Designed by Follett Osler, it was the world's first glass fountain, made of four tons of pure crystal glass. It was displayed in the central court of the Crystal Palace of the London Great Exhibition of 1851. It was destroyed by fire, along with the Crystal Palace, in 1936. The "Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition" wrote in 1851 that the fountain was "perhaps the most striking object in the exhibition; the lightness and beauty, as well as the perfect novelty of the design, have