 The life of the Great Exhibition was limited to six months, after which something had to be decided on the future of the Palace building.Against the wishes of Parliamentary opponents, a consortium of eight businessmen including Samuel Laing and Leo Schuster who were both board members of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), formed a suitable holding company and proposed that the edifice be erected on a property named Penge Place that had been excised from Penge Common at the top of Sydenham Hill.The construction of the building began on Sydenham Hill in 1852.