This station opened on July 28, 1883. After the destruction of this first building in the fires caused by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, Japanese Government Railways constructed the current station buildings. In 1927, Tokyo Underground Railway (now Tokyo Metro) opened Japan's first subway line from here to Asakusa Station. Following World War II, the neighbourhood in front of Ueno Station was a major center of black market activity. Today, that market is gathering people as a name of Ameya-Yokochō.