The station was built to a design of Southern Railway architect James Robb Scott and opened on 28 May 1939. It was intended as a through station on the line being built to Leatherhead. However, construction of the line stopped, never to be resumed, upon the outbreak of World War II and the up platform was never used for passenger trains, although the track was used for stabling out of service trains during off-peak times. There was a goods yard beyond the passenger station. After the continuation to Leatherhead was abandoned, part of line south of the station was used from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1980s for a coal concentration depot. The line and the sidings to the coal depot were unused and hidden by trees for many years, but in 2021 the land was cleared and tracks relaid for an aggregates depot.
The ticket office is at track level. There are two automated ticket machine at street level.
In 2019 a ramp was added to the station, providing step-free access to the single platform from street level.[2]
The disused platform is inaccessible, given there is no footbridge connecting the platforms. It remains abandoned as surplus to requirements, as only two trains depart each hour.
The typical service on all days of the week is two trains per hour to and from London Waterloo via Wimbledon which start and terminate at Chessington South.[3]