Exterior of the amenity building at Winchester Southbound, situated between J8-J9 of the M3, just South of the A303. It just misses A303 traffic from London to Cornwall and is a very quiet place as a result. Winchester opened in 2001, by Roadchef, and Southbound was built larger than NB. Both buildings obtain large glass frontages, sloped metallic roofs & feel spacious. Winchester is similar to Roadchef’s site at Northampton, built one year later. Due to low profitability, Roadchef sold the site when they suffered financial difficulty in 2008, & Moto bought, and began running, the site and still own Winchester to this day. This prompted various brand changes, such as Wimpy/Dr Beaks to Burger King and reStore to WHSmith. Although Winchester has been run by Moto for 15 years now, it still feels like a Roadchef. Interestingly, Moto don’t include their typical brand advertisements from the exterior, such as BK or Costa, and only include M&S and WHSmith, making the building look plainer. Parts of the building have been painted aqua, Moto’s theme colour, and although it’s a modern site, the exterior is quite dirty and in need of a clean/tidy up. Extra operating the filling station & Welcome Break owing the on-site Days Inn motel means Winchester has a prominent history of all the operators. Winchester will never be a crowded, busy motorway services but one that I enjoy visiting as it’s unique. Although Southbound is short of green-space, there’s plenty of vegetation around making Winchester seem rural and “in the woodlands”. Before 2008, Moto didn’t own any sites on this corner of motorway network and today Winchester is the only Moto site for miles. Winchester Southbound was quiet during my visit despite being the Easter holidays and it being midday, a time when most other services are crowded with people stopping for lunch. Winchester is signposted from the M3 South, however, these are outdated signposts only advertising 3 brands (BK/Costa/M&S) instead of the 6 brands typical of modern motorway signposts. This may change if Moto update the signposts for Southbound to include Greggs when it opens here.

Photo taken on 03/04/2024 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Winchester, Moto, M3, Roadchef