Nguyễn Huệ Street, named after emperor Nguyễn Huệ in Vietnam, originated from a canal (“Kinh Lớn”, i.e Large Canal) built by king Nguyễn Ánh in 1790 to bring water from the Saigon River into Gia Định citadel. At this time, people still called it the Chợ Vải canal (i.e Fabric Market Canal) because there were many Chinese merchants concentrated along the canal selling fabrics. Later, it was filled by the French to make a boulevard and today it has been built into a modern walking street.

After the French occupied Saigon, in 1861, the French began to plan the city again and the Kinh Lớn canal was renamed the Charner canal after Admiral Charner (who had planned the city's boundaries), with two parallel roads named Rigault de Genouilly and Charner on both sides of the canal.

Initially, there was a market on Charner Street which was the first market built in Saigon in 1860. The French called it Charner market, while the people of Saigon called it Chợ Sài Gòn (i.e Saigon market). This market was then demolished and relocated to Ben Thanh market today. Located at the old location of the Charner market gate are now in the Bitexco building and the State Treasury of Ho Chi Minh City.

By 1887, the French had filled this canal. The Rigault de Genouilly and Charner roads were merged into Charner Boulevard. Because the canal was filled in to make a road, the people of Saigon also called this road Kinh Lấp Road (i.e FIlled Canal Road).

After filling in the canal, the French built the Saigon - Chợ Lớn - Mỹ Tho railway line near Charner Boulevard, which was also the first railway line in Vietnam with a steam locomotive system.

Later, after the end of the war against French colonialism, Charner Boulevard was renamed Nguyễn Huệ Street by the government of the Republic of Vietnam. In 2015, Ho Chi Minh City inaugurated the Nguyễn Huệ walking street project with a length of 670m, a width of 64m, and a construction cost of nearly 430 billion VND, and thus Nguyen Hue walking street was formed.