There were no fewer than six original proposals to build a railway between London and Brighton. The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) emerged with an Act of Parliament of 15 July 1837, after a prolonged and expensive battle, for the most direct of these alternative routes. The scheme was to build a line from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) at Norwood to Brighton. The existing L&CR route from Norwood to London Bridge would also be used. One complication however, insisted on by the UK Parliament, was that the new railway should share its line between Croydon and Redhill with the South Eastern Railway main line to Dover. This clause in the act gave rise to sixty years of disputes between the two companies concerned.