Hampton was associated with the popular bayside Pic-Nic Point in the early 1880s, reached from the railway terminus at Brighton. The Point, elevated with sheltering patches of ti-tree, was serviced by two hotels and coffee gardens.

In 1887 the railway was extended from Brighton to Sandringham and the intervening railway station was named Retreat, after Pic-Nic Point's Retreat Hotel. Already, though, the beach and the pier were named Hampton, firstly after an early market-gardener Dyas Hampton and, secondly, because incipient landboomers liked the regal-sounding name, akin to the neighbouring Sandringham.

The change of the station to Hampton, after representations by local councillors, confirmed the name. Hampton's census population in 1911 was 1,369, and in 1913 a primary school was opened. The War Service Homes Commission built 300 homes. The 1930s saw marked growth in Hampton as market gardens were subdivided.

Haileybury College's second campus, just around the corner form the Hampton Street shops, opened in 1932.

The shops numbering over 100 in 1933 developed as a long strip, including a picture theatre. A high school was opened in 1937. Hampton's residential growth was pre- and early post-second world war.

It has five sports and passive-recreation reserves in its eastern area and a foreshore reserve form Picnic Point to Brighton Beach. During 1971 residents showed common cause with conservationists in Black Rock when mahogany gum trees were at risk from road widening.

In 1987 the high school was closed. An early public hall erected in the late 1890s in Hampton Street has, however, survived, after being used for worship, a cinema, a private school, dance hall and latterly for Girl Guides.