Adelaide Road Headhouse

We’re building eight ventilation (vent) shafts in London to support the high-speed railway. These vent shafts ventilate the tunnels for the railway and provide emergency access. The Adelaide Road vent shaft will connect to the Euston Approaches to Northolt Tunnels. Above each vent shaft will be a headhouse, including one at Adelaide Road.

The Adelaide Road headhouse will be located in the London Borough of Camden, between Chalk Farm and Primrose Hill Road. It is in the Network Rail embankment area opposite the junction with Eton Road and next to the Adelaide Nature Reserve.

Headhouse construction

Works at the Adelaide Road vent shaft and headhouse site were brought to a ‘safe stop’ in May 2024, with the expectation that works would not resume until spring 2025. However, as part of a recent and ongoing review of the construction programme by HS2, we do not now expect works to resume in 2025. Our vent shaft and headhouse site at Adelaide Road will remain in a safe stop.

During the safe stop, the hoarding will remain in place, and there will be 24-hour security. Some site activities will continue taking place, such as monitoring, design and maintenance.

There may also be periods when we need to use the Adelaide Road site for storage and welfare facilities. We’ll keep the local community informed about activities at the site.

The local community engagement team and the HS2 Helpdesk will still be available to answer your questions.

Headhouse design

The headhouse will be a double storey building from the railway side. We are planning to use similar materials at all headhouses between Euston and West Ruislip. The materials palette has been chosen according to the local environment, moving from brick through metal and towards wood as we move between rural and urban locations. Our future landscape plan considers local ecology and the vegetation requirements for a site next to a live railway. Our landscape design includes block / slab paving and trees and scrub habitat planting. We’re also planning to install a green roof on the headhouse buildings.

Our key landscape drivers are: ​

• To embed the building into the landscape ​
• To provide visual screening and improve biodiversity of the site
• To integrate the entrance by Adelaide Road with local context and heritage​

Adelaide Road FAQs – April 2025

Adelaide Road Headhouse and Boundary Wall Design Factsheet

Adelaide Road Headhouse Design Information Boards – September 2021