The station is the former location of the Barrière Poissonnière, a gate in the Wall of the Farmers-General built for the collection of excise taxes (the octroi).

During World War II, on 21 August 1941, Pierre Georges and three companions of the French Resistance shot and killed a German naval cadet named Alfons Moser when he was boarding a train at the Barbès station at eight in the morning.

[1] This was the start of a series of assassinations and reprisals that resulted in five hundred French hostages being executed in the next few months.

On 2 December 2016, a train derailed at the station, with no casualties but blocked traffic for 48 hours on part of the line.

As part of the automation of line 4, its station is being modernized, leading to the removal of its Ouï-dire style.