New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich, and home to Goldsmiths, University of London, Haberdashers' Hatcham College and Addey and Stanhope School.

According to the entry in the Domesday Book Hatcham's assets were: 3 hides; 3 ploughs, 6 acres (24,000 m2) of meadow, woodland worth 3 hog and rendered £2.

The diarist John Evelyn, who lived in Deptford, wrote in 1675 that he met a friend at 'New Crosse' in his coach before travelling down through Kent and on to France.

[5][6] Hatcham Iron Works in Pomeroy Street was an important steam locomotive factory, the scene of a bitter confrontation in 1865 between its manager, George England, and the workers.

The Strike Committee met at the Crown and Anchor pub in New Cross Road, now the site of Hong Kong City Chinese restaurant.

On 7 May, police baton charges were launched to clear a crowd of 2–3,000 pickets blockading the entrance (reported as "Rowdyism in New Cross" by the Kentish Mercury).

[8] On 25 November 1944 a V-2 rocket exploded at the Woolworths store in New Cross Road (on the site later occupied by an Iceland supermarket), 168 people were killed, and 121 were seriously injured.

[9] On 13 August 1977, the area saw the so-called Battle of Lewisham, during which the far-right British National Front were beaten back by militant anti-fascists and local people.

[11] Suspicions that the fire was caused by a racist attack, and accusations of police indifference to the deaths, led to the largest ever political mobilisation of black people seen in the UK.

[13] During the 1980s, the Goldsmiths Tavern hosted alternative cabaret nights, including the Parrot Cafe organised by Emma Cafferty and Nikky Smedley.

Comedians to have performed at the night include Stewart Lee, Cardinal Burns, Russell Howard, Shaparak Khorsandi, Andy Parsons, Andi Osho, Arthur Smith, Sarah Millican, Greg Davies, Milton Jones, Dane Baptiste, Robin Ince, and Al Murray.

[22][28] In the 2010s and early 2020s the area was known for being a focal point of the London jazz revival scene, with club night Steam Down, and musicians like Nubya Garcia having gigged there and in nearby Deptford.

Morton, a cannery and food processing plant in Millwall on the Isle of Dogs in 1885, was based at The Den in Cold Blow Lane from 1910 to 1993.

Millwall moved a short distance to a new stadium, The New Den, situated off Ilderton Road and just within Bermondsey, at the start of the 1993–94 season.

The former Deptford Town Hall building in New Cross Road, now also used by Goldsmiths, was built in the Edwardian Baroque style by Lanchester and Rickards, 1903–5.

[34] New Cross Fire Station is a Grade II listed building at 266 Queens Road, built in 1893–94 to a design by the architect Robert Pearsall.

After this the congregation moved temporarily to 117 Lewisham Way, returning to its original site at New Cross Road in 1946 – first to a temporary hut and then to a new purpose-built synagogue in 1956.

From New Cross Gate passengers can travel to Crystal Palace and West Croydon to the south and Highbury & Islington to the north.

Passengers can easily make a brief interchange at Dalston Junction for trains to Highbury and Islington New Cross also has mainline suburban services operated by Southeastern.