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
The Crystal Palace war at "Victory VI". Towards the end of the First War World War, the Crystal Palace re-opened as the site of the first Imperial War Museum; in 1920 this major initiative was fully launched with a program as the 'Imperial War Museum and Great Victory Exhibition Crystal Palace' (published by Photocrom). A few years later the Imperial War Museum moved to South Kensington, and then in the 1930s to its present site Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, formerly Bedlam. On 15–20 October 1934 the Pageant of Labour was held at the Crystal Palace. The development of ground and gardens of the