The class was designed by Dugald Drummond in 1897 for the London and South Western Railway in England and built by Dübs and Company at that company's Queen's Park works at Polmadie, Glasgow, Scotland.

[1] Soon after the locomotives passed to Southern Railway (SR) ownership, their LSWR numbers were prefixed "E" to denote Eastleigh Works - this was done to distinguish similarly-numbered locomotives from the other constituents of the SR; thus, LSWR No.

[2] In the meantime, there had been a proposal (prepared in March 1927) to renumber some classes into continuous blocks: the 700 class were allocated the series E336–9, E369–379 and E686–701 but none were actually renumbered, and the plan was cancelled in December 1927.

The locomotives passed to British Railways (BR) in 1948, who increased the former LSWR/SR numbers by 30000.

Hornby produce models of the 700 class in both Southern Railway livery and British Railway livery[5] including an example of the engine in the Return from Dunkirk train pack.