It was opened in 1902 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and was intended primarily to serve Christ's Hospital, a large private school which had moved to the area in that year.

Opened originally as Christ's Hospital (West Horsham),[1] the station was until the mid-1960s an important junction with, in addition to the existing link to Arundel via Pulborough, connections to Guildford via Cranleigh and Brighton via Shoreham-by-Sea.

[8] The site of Christ's Hospital station had been previously used by the Aylesbury Dairy Company which had a small wooden platform on the Mid-Sussex Railway for milk to be taken to London.

[9] At the time of the school's decision to relocate, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) had been considering whether to stimulate residential development in the area by opening a station at Stammerham which would be called West Horsham.

[9] With the arrival of the school, the LB&SCR believed that even more traffic would be generated and decided to construct a lavish station building at a cost of £30,000 (equivalent to £4,113,887 in 2023[a]).

[24][25][26] The station was ready to become an important junction serving most of West Sussex with trains travelling from London via Horsham having the option of routes to Pulborough, Shoreham-by-Sea, Guildford and beyond.

[29] The main station building was built in an Italianate style with red and white chequered polychrome brickwork filling heavy cross braced bargeboarded gables and repeated over round-head windows beneath.

[38] A report published in the West Sussex Gazette on 1 May 1902 called into question the wisdom of constructing such a large station for an area which was relatively sparsely populated.

Firstly, Christ's Hospital school only ever accommodated boarders; the LB&SCR had possibly not been informed of this when designing the station.

[26][38] The LB&SCR was therefore left with a white elephant: the capacity and stature of the station being vastly out of proportion with its status as a useful rural interchange, rather than an important railway junction serving much of West Sussex.

[51] The Guildford platforms were fenced off from the rest of the station but in 2020 they were restored as part of the Downs Link rail trail footpath and cycleway.

[51] Only the subway and the waiting room on the Down main line platform survived and this was adapted to house toilets and a booking office.

"[55] Prior to demolition a "funeral party" was held by pupils and staff of Christ's Hospital school; 120 people attended with special tickets printed with a black border.

[58][59] The goods shed, which had been used as a lost property store until around 1950, survived and was rented to Scottish & Newcastle as a distribution depot.

[20][37][60][61] The station, including the original building, appears as "Longhampton" in the 1965 comedy film Rotten to the Core, which featured SECR N class No.