The station was opened on 13 September 1926 as part of the
Morden extension of the
City & South London Railway south from
Clapham Common. On the original plan it had the name "Merton Grove". For geographical accuracy, the station was shown as "South Wimbledon (Merton)" on
tube maps from 1928, the name was also modified on platform signage, though not on the station building at street level. From the early-1950s, the "(Merton)" parenthetical fell out of use. Along with the other stations on the Morden extension, the building was designed by architect
Charles Holden. They were Holden's first major project for the Underground. He was selected by
Frank Pick, general manager of the
Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), to design the stations after he was dissatisfied with designs produced by the UERL's own architect,
Stanley Heaps. Built with a shop to each side, the modernist design takes the form of a double-height box clad in white
Portland stone with a three-part glazed screen on the front façade divided by columns of which the
capitals are three-dimensional versions of the
Underground roundel. The central panel of the screen contains a large version of the roundel. The station is a Grade II
listed building. The station is the southernmost station on the London Underground network which has platforms in tunnels (Morden is in an open cut). ==Connections==