The station opened in as a mainline station in 1885 as Dagenham. However, the current buildings date from the introduction of electric services in 1932 and are in the architectural style typical of the period, with little trace remaining of their Victorian origins. The station was then extensively refurbished in 2006. It has moderate usage for a suburban station, with approximately two million exits and entrances a year.

Near to the station is the man-made Eastbrookend Country Park – a 207 acre park filled with rare species of trees and plants – the Dagenham wind turbines, London’s first ‘wind farm’, and the Ford plant, which hires some 4,000 people. The film Made in Dagenham (2010) is based on the 1968 Ford sewing-machinists’ strike at the plant, where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination and unequal pay.