It is the only station on the High Barnet branch with a direct interchange with a National Rail line; furthermore an Out of Station Interchange (OSI) with Kentish Town West on the North London line is not charged as two separate journeys in electronic journey charging.

For some years trains ran from Kentish Town to Victoria station on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.

The separate London Underground station was opened on 22 June 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR), a precursor of the Northern line.

In April 2023, Transport for London (TfL) announced that the Underground station would be closed for "up to a year" from 26 June 2023 to allow both escalators, custom-designed for the station in 1997, leading to long closures due to unavailability of spare parts following breakdowns, to be replaced by the same up-to-date model as those used on the Elizabeth line.

[14] During closure Underground platform roundels were changed from "KENTISH TOWN" to "STATION CLOSED", and entrances were chained off.

On the London Underground, it is between Tufnell Park and Camden Town stations on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line.

On 21 August 2020 a man was hospitalised after he was hit by the TfL and British Rail sign, which fell off the façade of the entrance to Kentish Town station in high winds.