Watford Gap services

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Watford Gap service station (Northbound)

Watford Gap services is a motorway service area situated between junctions 16 and 17 of the M1 motorway, near Watford Gap, in Northamptonshire, England.

1 History
2 Ownership
3 Catering
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Opened concurrently with the new motorway on 2 November 1959, it was the first such service station in the UK. The structure was built on the site of derelict farm buildings. When the motorway first opened the new buildings were incomplete so food was served from temporary sheds. The original plan had been for trucks to use this service station while cars used the Newport Pagnell services to the south. In practice, however, both service areas were unrestricted.

[edit] Ownership

Initially, the service area was owned and run by Blue Boar Limited, a private family company that owned the Blue Boar petrol station on a nearby roundabout on the A5 road. The roundabout was known as the Blue Boar because an inn of that name stood there.

The owners of Blue Boar Limited petitioned that their business would be destroyed by the opening of the new services and the government agreed to grant them the franchise. Subsequent franchises at other service areas were allocated on the basis of a more commercial cost-benefits assessment. Blue Boar were also offered the Newport Pagnall franchise but rejected it as beyond their capability; this was one of the reasons why both service areas catered for cars and trucks.

The Highways Agency, who own the land on behalf of the Crown, leased the site to Blue Boar for fifty years in 1982. Blue Boar subsequently sold their motorway businesses to RoadChef in 1995. RoadChef have since rebuilt the entire facility.

[edit] Catering

When the restaurant did open, early in 1960, it offered a finer dining experience than the roadside cafes that were the previous norm. With strong late-fifties styling and hostesses to complement the table staff, it was noteworthy for many of the travellers, who first used it. The owners soon found, however, that travellers were unprepared to pay the prices needed to cover such service and the waitresses were replaced with self-service trays. The quality of the food also declined to that of its competitors and, because of its prominent location, the services became a byword for poor catering.

[edit] Trivia

A popular anecdote has it that American Jimi Hendrix believed Blue Boar to be the name of a London club, because it was mentioned by so many of his contemporaries.

In 1977 Roy Harper's album Bullinamingvase included the song Watford Gap with the disparaging lyrics 'Watford Gap, Watford Gap, a plate of grease and a load of crap'. Subsequent pressings omitted the song at the behest of an EMI board member who was a non-executive director of Blue Boar. It was restored to the CD reissue.

In 2000 the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions valued the freehold interest in the land at £1.67 million.

In the north of England, a common phrase used (when talking about something that is good) is "that's the best ___ this side of Watford Gap!" In popular culture, the Watford Gap is often stated as a dividing line that separates the North and the South of the country.