It was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) on 1 September 1865 and took its name from Lordship Lane, the thoroughfare on which it stood.

[1] In 1925 the line, now part of the Southern Railway, was electrified and the platform extended to allow for the new electric trains.

[2] It was situated a short distance from a rival London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) station named Forest Hill, which survives.

Lordship Lane station was permanently closed, along with the rest of the line, on 20 September 1954.

[5] The locality is the subject of Lordship Lane Station, Dulwich, an 1871 painting by Camille Pissarro,[6] which now hangs at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.