The station was built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and opened on the railway's existing Edgware, Highgate and London Line on 11 April 1881. The line ran from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate with branches to Alexandra Palace and High Barnet. After the 1921 Railways Act created the Big Four railway companies, the line was, from 1923, part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). In 1935 London Underground planned, as part of its "New Works Programme" to take over the line from LNER, modernise it for use with electric trains and amalgamate it with the Northern Line.