It is 5 miles 21 chains (8.5 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Maryland and Manor Park.

Forest Gate station first opened in 1840 by the Eastern Counties Railway, a year after the line was built, but was closed in 1843, before re-opening on 31 May 1846 following pressure from local residents.

[4] After re-opening the service was poor and local resident John Curwen observed "The trains were few and uncertain.

A junction was built east of Forest Gate station on 13 April 1854. which allowed the nascent London Tilbury and Southend Railway to operate trains to London via Stratford, Forest Gate station was not however served by these services.

The bay platform was removed as part of the works as the Local Lines were moved slightly to the north to accommodate the changes and stay within the rail boundary.

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.

From February 1949 the Class 306 EMUs operated the service to steam timings but an accelerated all electric schedule was introduced in September 1949.

[16] The railway was sectorised in 1982 and Forest Gate and the trains calling at it became part of the London and South-East sector.

On 10 June 1986 this was rebranded to become Network South East which was responsible for working services up to privatisation.

[19] In early 2019 step free access was introduced to Forest Gate station.

A Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation report blamed the driver of the Gidea Park train for his failure to "pay attention to signals".

[21] New Class 345 trains were phased into service, and they are over 200 metres (220 yd) in length, necessitating the extension of Forest Gate's platforms.