The station occupies the north end of the former Thames foot tunnel built by Marc Isambard Brunel between 1825 and 1843, and subsequently adapted for railway traffic. Access to the station is by lift or a flight of stairs built into one of the original access shafts of the Thames Tunnel.
The station was originally opened as the northern terminus of the East London Railway on 7 December 1869 as Wapping and Shadwell, and the station was renamed Wapping on 10 April 1876, when the line was extended northwards to, via a new station at. The earliest trains were provided by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, whose system connected with the line at.
Underground trains of the Metropolitan and the District Railways first served the station on 1 October 1884, but the station was last served by District trains on 31 July 1905. In 1980 a London Underground plan to extend the Jubilee line to Woolwich Arsenal and Beckton was approved by parliament. This included a station at Wapping, but was never built. The extension constructed in the 1990s followed a different route to the south of the River Thames. The station was extensively remodelled between 1995 and 1998, when the entire East London Line—including Wapping station—was closed due to repair work on the tunnels under the Thames. Vitreous enamel panels by Nick Hardcastle, showing the station and the area in former and modern times, were installed on the platforms.
London Overground
The East London Line closed on 22 December 2007, and reopened on 27 April 2010 when it became part of the new London Overground system. During this time the station was heavily refurbished. The proposed extension of the East London Line raised concerns that the station would have to be closed due to its platforms being too short to accommodate the new rolling stock planned for the extended line. The narrowness of the platforms was also a concern. The station does not fully meet the safety standards for an underground station but is permitted to operate under a derogation from Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate. Despite this, on 16 August 2004 then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone announced that the station would remain open. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.
Services
All times below are correct as of the December 2010 timetables.
London Overground
East London Line
On Mondays to Saturdays there is a service every 5–10 minutes throughout the day, while on Sundays before 13:00 there is a service every 5–9 minutes, changing to every 7–8 minutes until the end of service after that. Current off peak frequency is:
