| Heart of Scotland |
| BP |
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| Road: | M8 between J4 and J5 |
| Address: | BP Connect
Harthill
Shotts
Lanarkshire
ML7 5TT |
| Signposted from the road? | Yes |
| Opened: | 1971? |
| Previous operators: | Blue Star?, RoadChef |
| Previous names: | Harthill |
| Grid reference: | NS899647 |
| Services type: | Two sites located between junctions, connected by a pedestrian footbridge. |
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The only services between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Heart of Scotland was re-built by BP in 2006.
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Facilities
General: unknown
Restaurants: Wild Bean Cafe
Shops: Marks and Spencer Simply Food
Fuel: BP (pump types unknown)
Motel: none
Parking Prices
First two hours free for all vehicles. Further information is not available, please update this if you know.
Trivia
The new bridge being lifted into place
Heart of Scotland was originally known as Harthill. It was the first service area in Scotland when it opened in 1978, and when RoadChef took over it became one of the dirtiest sites in the country.
In 2006, it was decided that the best move would be to spend 4.1 million GBP completely rebuilding it, giving it a new operator and name in the process. To be honest, if the heart of Scotland really is a 1960s service station I'm worried for the country.
Heart of Scotland is the only services between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and for this reason it doubles-up as a long-distance bus interchange. The bridge between the two sites used to look like something from a 1960s car park, being old and a very dangerous place at night. After much debating the bridge was finally replaced by a modern, state-of-the-art one, which was lifted in to place on the night of the 3rd October by the largest mobile crane in Europe. There is a photos of it above and BBC News has footage of the new bridge being lifted in to place.
The old bridge is now going to be demolished. The services are one of only two in Scotland which are not marked as a recommended truckstop.
Survey Results
In 2006, Holiday Which? rated the services at 3/5. It is not known whether this was the old building or the new one.
Alternatives
Comments and Reviews
Showing the most recent responses only: for the full thread and the ability to edit your own posts, you need to view the topic in the forums.
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JSwankey
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I stopped off here tonight (02/02/10) on my way to Glasgow and was propositioned in the gents by a very seedy looking old man who asked me "You after some fun mate?". Disgusting. I think this place must be a gay cruising area at night.
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Anonymous
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I grew up down the road from these services and we local kids used to spend quite a bit of time there playing the arcades and mucking about. It was decent enough, facilities-wise (and they did great chips!) but the bridge was truly horrendous and populated by local junkies after dark, the stairwells were constantly littered with urine and needles, and it wasn't a great advert for our village!
These days it just consists of a couple of petrol stations connected by a (admittedly impressive, £5m worth) new bridge. It's a real shame Road Chef let it go to s**t in the later years, it had potential.
I remember an ITV roadshow taking place there in the late 80s, and the restaurant used to host music recitals by local schoolkids at Christmas time, which seemed to go down well with the motorists, and raised a bit for charity. But the neglect really set in during the 90s, and by the time they pulled the old buildings down, it was long overdue.
It's totally faceless these days, though, which is sad, but does the trick if you're just stopping for petrol and a magazine I guess.
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Chris
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Goodness, I remember these services from back in the 1980s and 90s and for those who don't, I'm sure others would agree that it is hard to describe just how rancid this place was. Two seemingly endless, dark, urine soaked stairwells and a bridge which tested the strength of the human lungs to hold air as you ran from one end to the other whilst trying not to inhale the dank, stale air. The food seemed to consist of either orange, yellow or brown slop and the stench would turn your stomach. The place was filthy, and given the proximity between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and that at a guess most of the traffic on the M8 is between these cities, I'm amazed anyone would stop there to eat. I guess a lot of their custom came from the coach transfers.
Better conditions in prison.
Totally unrecognisable now thank goodness!
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Alan
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Yeah the Wimpy is sadly long gone but I have found a picture of it. http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/towns/townfirst264.htmlYeah someone really needs to come along and build a proper services here, Just like it was before but minus the grotty bits. A glorified petrol station just doesn't cut it! |
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Anonymous
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There is no wimpy at this site - that was closed during the rebuild - it was a wimpy drive through onthe west bound side. Anyways the site is filthy. I usually pop in and get a can of juice from time to time and its a shame that it is left to get to the state that it is in. Does no one care about apperances ? The grounds are littered with rubbish and it appears to be full of weeds and unkept. Ive tired to find out who to complain to and not had much luck.
The new bridge is being built as we speak, parts are in the east bound side being assembled.
M&S food is located in the west bound side and there are no plans to add an M&S to the east bound side.
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Johnny
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Now updated, thanks.
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Anonymous
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These Services also have a Wimpy.
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ruggedscot
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This was one of the worst services in scotland - crap site and poor service - Iwent in one evening and had to say the site was disgusting so was really pleased when they bulldozed it and rebuilt it - its now far superior to what it was like, Although I was in today going west bound and found the windscreen washer faciliteis at the pumps to be empty of water and full of rubbish. Not a good sign.
Gavin |
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Admin
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