The station was opened on 1 June 1873 by the South Eastern Railway. In 1923 it was taken over by the Southern Railway. The line was electrified in February 1926. In 1948 the station passed to British Railways. In the mid 1970s the station was re-modelled when the fast line island platform was closed and demolished. This provided space to build a flydown from the Lewisham-Nunhead line to the up fast line. The booking office at street level was destroyed by fire in the late 1970s.