The station is adjacent to Victoria Embankment Gardens and is close to Charing Cross station, Embankment Pier, Hungerford Bridge, Cleopatra's Needle, the Royal Air Force Memorial, the Savoy Chapel and Savoy Hotel and the Playhouse and New Players Theatres.

A variety of underground and main line services have operated over the sub-surface tracks and the CCE&HR part of the station was reconstructed in the 1920s.

[7] The construction of the new section of the DR was planned in conjunction with the building of the Victoria Embankment and was achieved by the cut and cover method of roofing over a trench.

The service was run by the North London Railway (NLR) from its terminus at Broad Street (now demolished) in the City of London via the North London Line to Willesden Junction, then the West London Line to Addison Road and the DR to Mansion House – at that time the eastern terminus of the DR.[9] From 1 August 1872, the Middle Circle service also began operations through South Kensington, running from Moorgate along the MR's tracks on the north side of the Inner Circle to Paddington, then over the Hammersmith & City Railway (H&CR) track to Latimer Road, then, via a now demolished link, on the WLEJR to Addison Road and the DR to Mansion House.

[7] In 1897 the DR obtained parliamentary permission to construct a deep-level tube railway running between Gloucester Road and Mansion House beneath the sub-surface line.

[8] On 6 April 1914, the CCE&HR (now a part of the Northern line) opened a one stop extension south from its terminus at Charing Cross.

The CCE&HR extension was constructed as a single track tunnel running south from Charing Cross as a loop under the River Thames and back.

[20] In September 1938, during the Sudeten Crisis, when war appeared imminent, the Bakerloo and Northern line tunnels at Embankment were temporarily sealed with concrete to protect against flooding through bombing.

[8] Then, on 12 September 1976, it became Embankment,[8] so that the merged Strand and Trafalgar Square stations could be named Charing Cross.

[23][24] From January until November 2014, access to the Bakerloo and Northern Line was closed whilst the replacement of the 80-year-old escalators took place Embankment's northbound Northern line platform remains the only place on the network where Oswald Laurence's 'Mind the gap' announcement can still be heard, having been reinstated in 2013 at the request of Laurence's widow.

The cause of the accident was a faulty signal, which showed a green "proceed" aspect to the second train even though the line ahead was not clear.