It was the southern passenger terminus of the NLR, although goods trains ran on to connect to the London and Blackwall Railway (LBR) for the East India Docks or to the LBR's Millwall Extension Railway for the West India Docks.

It was empowered to construct a railway from the district of Poplar and the docks to Camden Town in north London.

Services started running on 26 September 1850 but Poplar (East India Road) station was not built and the trains (initially from Islington) ran to Bow and then via Gas Factory Junction to Fenchurch Street as the line did not have a central London terminus.

[5] Although a station had been built (known as Poplar High Street) at the time and located south of the East India Road site it never had a passenger train service.

Although replacement bus services operated for a period the station was officially closed on 23 April 1945.

[11] Despite the closure of the station the lines through the platforms were re-opened as they were a major route for goods trains running through to the docks.

The docks saw a gradual decline in traffic and Poplar Central Signal Box officially closed on 2 December 1970 with all points being set for train crew operation.

[12] After closure, work started on building the Docklands Light Railway and All Saints DLR station was built on the site.

In 2021 a more frequent service operates between Stratford and Canary Wharf with some peak hour trains extended to and from Lewisham.