It is 9 miles 79 chains (16.1 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Goodmayes and Romford.

Chadwell Heath station was opened on 11 January 1864 and is built on the site of Wangey House, one of Dagenham's oldest buildings dating back to 1250.

The ticket office was relocated over the tracks and was the same design as Seven Kings and Goodmayes; a dual-pitched roof structure of red brick with stone dressings, a semi-circular pediment above the entrance which was sheltered by a generous twin-arched canopy; miniature arched pediments topping the end gables.

The housing estate was not well served by public transport and, by the mid 1930s, 24 trains were operating towards London between 05:30 and 09:48 in the morning.

Plans were drawn up in the 1930s to electrify the suburban lines from Liverpool Street to Shenfield at 1,500 V DC and work was started on implementing this.

However, the outbreak of the Second World War brought the project to a temporary halt and it was not until 1949 that the scheme was completed.

[6] The station suffered a direct bomb hit in April 1941, which wrecked platform 1 and the footbridge, and damaged the ticket office.

The railway was sectorised in 1982; Chadwell Heath and the trains calling at it became part of the London and South-East sector.

[14] All services at Chadwell Heath are operated by the Elizabeth line using Class 345 electric multiple units.