New Cross Station (renamed New Cross Gate in 1923 to distinguish it from the other New Cross Station to its east) opened on the London and Croydon Railway in 1839.

The line partly follows the route of the Croydon canal. This was only the second railway in south east London.

The spire in the background was that of the newly built St Mary Magdalene, Peckham, a church destroyed by bombing in 1941.