Euston Cavern Headhouse

We’re building eight headhouses in London to support the high-speed railway. These headhouses sit above shafts, which ventilate the tunnels for the railway and provide emergency access. The Euston Cavern Headhouse will be in the railway cutting at the northern end of Park Village East.

Headhouse construction

In the Euston Approaches, we will continue with utilities diversions, works on Granby Terrace Bridge, Hampstead Road Bridge and some tunnelling enabling works. We will also continue to monitor properties and carry out protective works.

HS2 are rescheduling works in the Euston Cavern and Euston Scissor Box areas to ensure they are delivered at the lowest reasonable cost. We will keep you informed about our works programme.

Activities we will progress in the Euston Approaches include:

• The extension of Granby Terrace Bridge
• The extension of Hampstead Road bridge
• Works in the Euston Throat Retained Cut
• Utility diversion works in support of Hampstead Road Bridge and Granby Terrace Bridge
• Surveys and protective works to properties required ahead of the tunnelling
• Use of the Regent’s Park Vehicle Holding Area and the existing lorry lay-by north of Park Village East
• Design work

Activities being rescheduled include:

• Works in the Euston Cavern and Euston Scissor Cut
• Cavern Shaft welfare and office building on Park Village East
• Park Village East lay-bys south of Mornington Street bridge
• 24/7 tunnelling and major excavations
  • Cavern shaft excavation and mechanical excavations of tunnels in Camden Cutting north
  • Euston Scissor box south of Mornington Street Bridge

For further details of above construction works please follow this link to our Frequently asked questions.

Headhouse design

Located next to the existing west coast mainline, the split-level three-storey building will be clad with traditional blue/grey engineering brick, in keeping with the area’s Victorian railway architecture.

The new headhouse will extend above the top of the 10-metre-high retaining wall, with a green roof, stone-paved courtyard and entrance facing Park Village East. At street level, the original parapet wall will be retained with new planting to help reduce the visual impact of the building.

We’ve engaged with Camden Council during the development of the designs and have held a series of public engagement events to gather views from the local community since 2018. As a result, several significant changes have been made to the final design, including the increased use of brickwork and additional planting at street level.