Its opening in 1926 contributed to the rapid development of new suburbs in what was previously a rural part of Surrey; the population of the parish increased ninefold in the decade 1921–1931.

Following the end of the First World War, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) began reviving a series of prewar plans for line extensions and improvements that had been postponed during the hostilities.

The UERL wished to maximise its use of the government's time-limited financial backing,[9] and, in November 1922, presented Bills to parliament to construct the W&SR in conjunction with an extension of the UERL's City and South London Railway (C&SLR) south from Clapham Common through Balham, Tooting and Merton.

[14] The Southern Railway (SR) objected to this encroachment into its area of operation and to the anticipated loss of its passenger traffic to the C&SLR's more direct route to central London.

[20][21][22][note 3] The opening of the C&SLR and the Wimbledon to Sutton line led to rapid construction of suburban housing throughout the area.

[29] In a letter to his friend Harry Peach, a fellow member of the Design and Industries Association (DIA), Pick explained his choice of Holden: "I may say that we are going to build our stations upon the Morden extension railway to the most modern pattern.

"[30][note 6] Built with a range of shops to both sides, the modernist design of the entrance vestibule takes the form of a double-height box clad in white Portland stone with a three-part glazed screen on the front façade divided by columns of which the capitals are three-dimensional versions of the Underground roundel.

The main structure of the station and the shops to each side was designed with the intention of taking upward development on its roof, though this did not come until around 1960 when three storeys of office building were added.

[36][note 8] Refurbishment and improvement works completed in 2007 included new and reconstructed cross-bridges between platforms, and the installation of lifts for mobility-impaired passengers.

[38] Cosmetic improvements carried out at the same time included the reinstatement of pole-mounted roundels on the sides of the entrance vestibule.

[note 9] Other work in the 2000s at the station includes the construction of a substantial air rights building spanning across the cutting.