After the Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) went out of business in 1846, the Wimbledon and Croydon Railway (W&CR) took over the route and opened the station on 22 October 1855. The route was then operated as a conventional railway, until it was closed by Railtrack after the last train on 31 May 1997, for conversion to tram operation. Station Court, on the north of the tram line and east of London Road A217, was one of the SIR's original station buildings, used as a merchant's home, making it one of the oldest railway buildings in the world. The wall of the Ram Brewery on York Road has a plaque commemorating this.