In 1898, the electric tram line, running along Willoughby Road and Penshurst Street, had reached Victoria Avenue, and in 1908, it was extended to Chatswood railway station.

At this time Chatswood's history contained orchards and dairy farms on the west side of the train station as well as factories, such as Dairy Farmers Inc and Three Threes Pickle Factory on what was then Gordon Road (now the Pacific Highway).

The suburb became known for its East Asian businesses, including grocery stores, restaurants and markets.

The Australian headquarters of Smith's Snackfood, Carnival Australia, Coffey, PepsiCo and Carter Holt Harvey[10] as well as offices of Nortel Networks, Optus, Lenovo, Carnival Australia, NEC, Ventia and Huawei are located in Chatswood.

Chatswood has a wide variety of restaurants and cafes and is known as a major dining destination in the Lower North Shore of Sydney.

There are a large number of Chinese (including Cantonese), Japanese and Korean restaurants and eateries.

Chatswood is a major bus terminus with Busways, CDC NSW and Keolis Downer Northern Beaches services to the city, North Sydney, Mosman, St Leonards/Crows Nest, Manly, Warringah Mall/Brookvale, Ku-ring-gai, Lindfield Precinct, Belrose, Frenchs Forest, Burwood, Top Ryde, Macquarie Park/Centre, Olympic Park, Cammeray, Crows Nest, Killarney Heights, Greenwich and Willoughby.

The most common non-Australian countries and regions of birth were China (20.1%), Hong Kong (5.5%), South Korea (4.3%), India (4.0%) and Japan (2.5%).

Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin (23.3%), Cantonese (12.3%), Korean (4.8%), Japanese (3.0%) and Hindi (1.9%).

It is the second-largest in Lower Northern Sydney and is intended as testimony to a modern, multicultural and prosperous Chatswood.

The Concourse was opened on 11 September 2011 by the Governor of NSW, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO.

Beauchamp Park, located on Nicholson Street, features a playground, an oval, a fenced dog area and a bike track.

Named in honour of the recently deceased former Willoughby Mayor Greg Bartels, the park is the former Edgar Street reserve.

At the centre of the Garden stands the Willoughby Council Peace Tablet, which commemorates the signing of The Treaty of Versailles in 1918.