The West Croydon station was developed as a result of a meeting between local residents and the Railway Commissioner in 1914. Initially, the station was to be called York, after a nearby subdivision, but the naming was changed to its current form. In 1910, a subway was built in a grade separation project. The platforms were built over the subway and the station opened on 21 December 1915.
In March 1978, the building on Platform 1 was destroyed by fire, and the ticket office on that platform was immediately closed. The ticket office on Platform 2 closed on 12 December 1980. In 2016, a nearby primary school painted six large signs that were added to the station's south platform as part of a program to decorate stations across Adelaide. Two of the paintings are of Pokémon, while the third displays the continent of Australia.