Opened on 1st July 1840 as Shoreditch and renamed Bishopsgate on 27th July 1847, it was the original London passenger terminus of the Eastern Counties Railway. The station was inconveniently located and was replaced as the terminus when Liverpool Street opened in 1874.

On closure it was converted into a goods station which opened in 1881. The site suffered considerable damage from fire on 5th December 1964 and was closed. The entire site, except for listed buildings, was demolished in 2004 to make way for a planned tube station on the East London Line called Shoreditch High Street tube station. There is currently a Shoreditch station, east of there on the East London Line adjacent to Brick Lane, which it will replace.

Another Shoreditch station on the North London Railway was at the eastern end of Old Street, to the north.