Henry William Braddock, the Great Central Railway's civil engineer, designed the station, and the Act of Parliament passed on March 28, 1893. It opened to coal traffic on July 27, 1898 and to passengers on March 15, 1899. Sir Robert William Ellis designed the adjoining Great Central Hotel, built by a different company because of the cost of the London Extension.
The style is a domestic Wrenaissance revival with Dutch gables, in warm brick and cream stone. The article calls it modest, owing to limited funds. The booking hall is 63 by 40 feet (19.2 by 12.3 m), and the site covers 51 acres (21 ha). The plan had eight platforms, and the article gives conflicting counts for how many were first built. Six now remain.
The hotel became offices in 1945 and reopened as a hotel in 1993. Chiltern Railways operates the station.
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