It is 7 miles 29 chains (11.8 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Manor Park and Seven Kings.

The line was extended to the London terminus of Bishopsgate in 1840 and in stages into Essex where it linked with the Eastern Union Railway at Colchester.

[4][5] The period of 1893-1910 was one of great housing growth in the area and in 1895 the York Road entrance was opened at the west end of the station.

The original 1839 entrance was re-opened for sundries traffic (as it had level access) at this time to serve the up through platform.

[6] From 1903 trains from Fenchurch Street ran through Ilford to Woodford following the opening of the Fairlop Loop.

200,000 milk churns were being handled by the station in the mid-1900s so A bridge equipped with lifts to platform level was built.

The majority of the suburban trains were to destinations on the Great Eastern Main Line, some terminating at Ilford and some routed towards the Fairlop Loop.

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.

[9] A flyover south of Ilford opened on 6 October 1947 and this enabled local trains to cross over the through lines without a conflicting movement and was a major part of the electrification project.

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

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

In June 2017, new Class 345 trains began entering service in preparation for the opening of Crossrail.

Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Heilgers, a Member of Parliament, was one of nine people killed in the 1944 Ilford rail crash.

On 4th December 2024 Jorge Ortega a Customer experience assistant for the Elizabeth Line was killed on duty [19] The main entrance, in Cranbrook Road, was heavily rebuilt during the 1980s, with architecture in keeping with other contemporary buildings in Ilford such as the Central Library.

There is also a secondary entrance on York Road, from which the western (London) ends of the platforms can be reached via a footbridge.

Immediately to the west of the station is a flyover that allows the main line to cross over from the south side of the electric line to the north, and thus easily access the longer northern platforms at Liverpool Street without having the cross over in the station throat.

The tracks cross the River Roding at the same point, and pass under the North Circular Road.