Proposals to join London to Brighton by rail had been floating about in various forms since 1823, though the London & Brighton Railway was not finally authorised until 1837, essentially the line surveyed by John Rennie. It was one of several routes offered for approval by various proposers vying for the privilege of joining the two places and after some lively and combative hearings in Committee, and a very unsatisfactory voting outcome, this route had been preferred.
Its recommendation as the best of those on offer came in a very detailed report compiled by Captain Robert Alderson, RE, who had been appointed by the Committee as an independent and qualified assessor to inspect all the contending routes. Despite describing the one proposed by Robert Stephenson as preferable from the engineering point of view, taking advantage of the Mole and Adur gaps through the North and South Downs, Alderson considered London Bridge a better starting point – put forward on Rennie’s proposed ‘direct’ route – over Stephenson’s chosen ‘remote’ Nine Elms, a terminus offered by some other contenders too. He also commended Rennie positioning his Brighton terminus close to the London Road, rather than to the west of the town, noting also it was better placed for any eastward extension towards the port of Newhaven. But he also believed there was advantage in following a more easterly line through the South Downs, tunnelling under them at Clayton rather than approaching the town via the Newtimber gap as Rennie had proposed. Having discussed the several routes in detail, Alderson states that in his view Rennie’s route, though it presented the greater engineering difficulties, in overall terms was the best on offer. Stephenson protested vehemently in vain!
Starting at Norwood Fork Junction, on the London & Croydon Railway 9¼ miles from London Bridge, the line opened in two stages, to Haywards Heath on 12th July 1841 and on to Brighton just over two months later. However, this was not the first part of the company’s system to come into operation. That was formed by a 5¾-mile long tentacle heading westward along the coast from Brighton to Shoreham*.
At first sight this could be seen as an unnecessary diversion of financial and practical resources from the main business of joining coast to capital. But there was a ‘reason in this madness’. The port of Shoreham had and still has a sheltered and well-used harbour at the mouth of the River Adur – though it cannot be gained or left at all states of the tide – which permitted building material as well as the Brighton’s earliest rolling stock to be brought in by sea. This line opened on 12th May 1840.
Brighton station stands 50m 49ch from London Bridge and 14ch further than that from Victoria via Streatham, and lies alongside the appropriately-named Terminus Road about a half-mile from the sea front. It also stands a little
