The station was opened on 2 April 1906 as Ruislip & Ickenham by the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway (GW&GCJR). The GW&GCJR connected London and the Midlands via High Wycombe and provided an alternative route to the Great Central Railway’s main line through Aylesbury, Harrow and Wembley which shared its route with the Metropolitan Railway.
Prior to the Second World War plans had been made for a number of extensions to the Central Line. The London Passenger Transport Board’s 1935-40 New Works programme included the extension of the Central Line to run alongside the Great Western Railway tracks from North Acton to South Ruislip and the GW&GCJR tracks from there as far as Denham; the post-war introduction of the Metropolitan Green Belt caused the extension to be cut back to West Ruislip. Had the Central Line extension been completed as planned, the next station would have been Harefield Road. Preparatory work on this section had started just before the war and a section of trackbed constructed for the extension can be seen to the west of the road overbridge, beyond the buffer stops of the Central Line tracks alongside the National Rail line.
On 30 June 1947, the station name was changed to West Ruislip (for Ickenham).
