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
Architecture of London of cast-iron and plate glass which opened in 1851. Before that, iron was already being used to gird the roofs of the King's Library in the British Museum, built between 1823–27, the Reform Club (1837–41), Travellers Club (1832), and the new Palace of Westminster. The technological advancements pioneered with the Crystal Palace would be applied to the building of London's great railway termini in the latter half of the century: St. Pancras, Liverpool Street station, Paddington, King's Cross, and Victoria. King's Cross was a relative latecomer; built in 1851 to support incoming traffic for the Crystal Palace exhibition, its arched