The London and South Western Railway (LSWR) Company supported a proposed Wimbledon and Dorking Railway (WDR), that proposed connecting the named towns via Epsom, partly as the company wanted a share of the lucrative Epsom race traffic.

[1] In 1857, before the scheme could be approved, the independent Epsom and Leatherhead Railway (ELR) was incorporated, pre-empting the central part of the WDR route.

[2][3] The ELR opened on 1 February 1859, initially consisting of an isolated single-track line from Epsom to Leatherhead with an intermediate station at Ashtead.

[7] The new LSWR station was a single storey brick built structure in a neo-classical Italianate style, typical of the company's designs of the 1880s.

It replaced a smaller structure that lay to the north of Kingston Road that served the original ELR station.

A curving 5 arch viaduct was built to cross the River Mole just to the south west of the station and north of the engine shed.

The up station buildings were demolished and offices built on the site and part of the approach road.

The LBSCR stationmaster's house, an integral part of the main up side buildings, is now in use as the Archive and Library of The Railway Correspondence & Travel Society.

The establishment of the Metropolitan Green Belt around London, first proposed by the Greater London Regional Planning Committee in 1935, and the subsequent designation of Ashtead Common as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1955, led to the abandonment of the line's extension.

Land through North Leatherhead reserved for the railway was subsequently used for a small section of route of the M25 motorway and its junction with the A243.

The up side range of buildings include the station master's house with Italianate tower, ticket office and booking hall.

[16] Services at Leatherhead are operated by Southern and South Western Railway using Class 377 and 455 EMUs.