The Plough Inn at the junction of Little Ealing Lane and Northfields Avenue existed by 1722 but the area was otherwise rural with just a few houses along Little Ealing Lane. The main form of agriculture was orchards. The arrival of the railway prompted development of the area.
The acrobat and tightrope walker Charles Blondin (famed for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope) lived in Northfields from 1886 until his death in 1897 in a house on the site of what is now Niagara House. From 1815 to 1817 John Quincy Adams, later to become the 6th President of the United States lived with his family at Little Boston House in Windmill Road.
Northfields station opened as Northfield (Ealing) on 16 April 1908 and was renamed as Northfields and Little Ealing on 11 December 1911.
In the early 1930s a new Northfields station was built in conjunction with the preparations for the introduction of Piccadilly line services and the new Northfields depot that would house its trains. Located on the opposite side of Northfields Avenue to its predecessor, the new station was designed by Charles Holden. The new station opened on 19 May 1932 with the current name.