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Victoria era rail company of South East England

The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway ran from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) at Norwood – which gives it access from London Bridge, just south of the River Thames in central London. It ran from Norwood to the South Coast at Brighton, together with a branch to Shoreham by Sea.

During the English Regency, and particularly after the Napoleonic Wars, Brighton rapidly became a fashionable social resort, with more than 100,000 passengers being carried there each year by coach.

The London and Croydon Railway line ran from London Bridge to West Croydon and was opened in 1839. The engineer for the Brighton extension was John Urpeth Rastrick, who began construction of the 4ft8.5in line in 1838. By July 1840, 6,206 men, 962 horses, five locomotives and seven stationary engines were employed. The new main line included substantial earthworks and five tunnels through the North Downs at Merstham, the Wealden ridge near Balcombe and at Haywards Heath, and the South Downs at Patcham and Clayton. The railway also had a 1475 feet (450 m) long, 96 feet (29 m) high viaduct over the River Ouse near Balcombe. The Brighton Shoreham branch was completed in May 1840, before the main line, as, aside from the deep cutting and short Belmont Tunnel and the embankment between Portslade and Southwick, there were no significant civil engineering works on this section. Locomotives and rolling stock had to be transshipped by road for what was, in the first year, an isolated stretch of railway. After the formation of the LBSCR the branch was successively extended to Portsmouth, becoming the Brighton to Portsmouth line. The main line was opened in two sections, since major earthworks delayed completion in one piece. The Norwood Junction – Haywards Heath section was opened on 12 July 1841 and the remainder of the line from Haywards Heath to Brighton on 21 September 1841. The branch line to Lewes authorised by the 1837 act was built 1844–46 by a separate company, the Brighton Lewes and Hastings Railway.

The railway employed the architect David Mocatta, who designed a number of attractive yet practical Italianate style stations using standardised modules. These were London Bridge, Croydon, Godstone Road, Red Hill and Reigate Road, Horley, Crawley, Haywards Heath, Hassocks Gate and Brighton. Only Mocatta's station at Brighton is still standing (which also incorporated the railway offices), but his building is now largely obscured by later additions. Mocatta also designed the eight stone and brick pavilions and a stone balustrade which embellish Rastrick's brick viaduct over the River Ouse. The L&BR built fully equipped locomotive depots and workshops at Brighton in 1840 and Horley in 1841. Horley was originally intended to serve as the principal workshop of the railway, but John Chester Craven decided in 1847 to develop Brighton railway works instead.

On 27 July 1846, the L&B amalgamated with the L&C, the Brighton and Chichester Railway and the Brighton Lewes and Hastings Railway to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The amalgamation had been brought about by shareholders in the L&CR and L&BR who were dissatisfied with the early returns from their investment.