| Watford Gap Services | |
|---|---|
| Watford Gap service station (Northbound) | |
| County | Northamptonshire |
| Road | M1 |
| Coordinates | |
| Operator | RoadChef |
| Previous operator(s) | Blue Boar |
| Date opened | 1959 |
| Website | RoadChef |
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Watford Gap services (Northamptonshire)
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Watford Gap services is a motorway service area on the M1 in Northamptonshire, England. It is named after a geographical feature of the local landscape, the Watford Gap. In August 2011 it was rated as 3 stars by quality assessors at Visit England.[1]
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Opened concurrently with the new motorway on 2 November 1959, it was the first such service station in the UK.[2] The structure was built on the site of derelict farm buildings, and on opening the new buildings were incomplete so the 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.
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. Blue Boar were also offered the Newport Pagnell franchise but rejected it as beyond their capability; this was one of the reasons why both service areas catered for cars and trucks.
The restaurant opened early in 1960, and offered a finer dining experience than the roadside cafés 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.
The Highways Agency, who own the land on behalf of the Crown, leased the site to Blue Boar for fifty years in 1982. RoadChef purchased the motorway businesses from Blue Boar in 1995 and have since rebuilt the entire facility. In 2000 the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions valued the freehold interest in the land at £1.67 million.
Roy Harper wrote a song criticising the food at the Watford Gap on his 1977 album, Bullinamingvase. [2] The owners of Watford Gap service station objected to criticism of their food ("Watford Gap, Watford Gap / A plate of grease and a load of crap…"), as did an EMI board member who was (also) a non-executive director of Blue Boar. [3]
In popular culture, the Watford Gap is often considered to be a dividing line that separates the north and the south of Great Britain,[4] and during the 1960s and 1970s it was a popular stopping venue for bands such as Pink Floyd[5] and the Rolling Stones.[6] It has been noted that the Watford Gap Services are an example of banal names that have 'become part of this distinctively national mythology'.[7]
In July 2011, music journalist Peter Paphides presented Late Nights at the Blue Boar, a BBC Radio 4 documentary about the connection between the services and Britain's 1960s rock bands.[8]
The services are located in Northamptonshire, England about half a mile away from the village of Watford about 8 miles (13 km) to the south east of Rugby and about 75 miles (121 km) to the north west of London. They are situated between junctions 16 and 17 of the M1 motorway with a single site for each direction on the motorway linked by a footbridge.
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Motorway service stations on the M1 Motorway |
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