Strawberry Hill has a suburb-cum-village feel, and the station continues this trend, welcoming passengers with wide canopied platforms and a charming station building dating back to 1873. Rail first arrived in the area in 1863, and the modern structure that visitors see today comes from a facelift in 1935. Located in the borough of Richmond upon Thames in southwest London, the station is in Zone 5.
The area surrounding the station is an affluent suburb with a group of independent retailers, including a cake and golf shop, outside the station. Britain's oldest Roman Catholic University, St Mary's can be found on Waldegrave Road. The main pull for the area however is Strawberry Hill house. Designed by Horace Walpole - the son of England's first Prime Minister - in the 18th century, it is regarded as the UK's greatest example of Georgian Gothic revival architecture, and Walpole's book The Castle of Otranto, widely regarded as the first true gothic novel.