Designed by Great Eastern Railway CME A Hill to provide a more powerful locomotive for the busy suburban services from Liverpool Street station 2 were built initially and once well tested further production batches totalling 20 locomotives were ordered, though finished in 1924 under LNER ownership following the 1922 grouping. These first 22 locomotives being built at the GER works in Stratford.
The LNER selected the quite new N7 design, with a few alterations to suit the company-wide loading gauge, as a standard type, ordering a further 112 locomotives from the company's works at Gorton (40 built 1925-8) and Doncaster (32 built 1927-8) plus 20 from Robert Stephenson & Co and 20 from Wm Beardmore & Co.
Most were allocated to the former Great Eastern Railway area covering suburban duties to the east of London and country routes into East Anglia, though a number of duties took N7s west along secondary cross-country routes towards Bedford and Dunstable/Luton.
There were a number of design variations, including boilers with square topped Belpaire fireboxes of the LNER standard round topped firebox, different valves and some fitted with control gear for use on push-pull services.
One example has been preserved, BR number 69621 which was the last new locomotive built at Stratfrod works as LNER number 7999 (ordered as GER number 999) in 1924.