East Brixton station was opened on 13 August 1866 by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LBSCR) as Loughborough Park.

[2] The station was included in a proposal published in 1905 by the Australian engineer Elfric Wells Chalmers Kearney for an underground monorail-type railway.

The plans for the Kearney High-Speed Railway envisaged running a tube line from Cricklewood via central London, Brixton and Herne Hill to Crystal Palace, but were never realised.

The Southern Railway had more miles of third rail track than overhead line so in 1928 the electric traction system on the route was switched.

With declining passenger numbers and the station requiring extensive repairs to the wooden platforms and buildings it was decided that the expense was not justified.

[12][13] In March 2017, Lambeth Council started a review to see if there was a business case for reopening the station, working with Transport for London and Network Rail.

[14] In August 2017, Labour’s Florence Eshalomi MP and Conservative member of the London Assembly, Andrew Boff, called for the station to be re-opened.

[15] In August 2018, the Liberal Democrats’ Caroline Pidgeon called for the reopening of East Brixton, by launching a petition.