The station was designed by architect Stanley Heaps and opened as Brent on the 19 November 1923, the first station on the extension of what was then known as the Hampstead & Highgate Line through undeveloped rural areas to Edgware. The extension had first been planned prior to World War I when the station had been due to be called Woodstock. It was renamed from Brent to its current name on the 20 July 1976 opening of the shopping centre.