Heston is the last service area on the M4 into London and it's one of two located within the M25.
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Facilities
Westbound
General: Picnic Tables, Children's Play Area, Business Centre, Local Information, Showers, Wi-Fi
Restaurants: Eat & Drink Co., Burger King, Costa Coffee, Krispy Kreme
Shops: WH Smith
Fuel: BP (with pumps for Unleaded, Ultimate Unleaded, Diesel, Ultimate Diesel and LPG)
Motel: Travelodge[book rooms]
Eastbound
General: Children's Play Area, Local Information, Showers, Wi-Fi
Restaurants: Burger King, Costa Coffee
Shops: WH Smith
Fuel: BP (with pumps for Unleaded, Ultimate Unleaded, Diesel, Ultimate Diesel and LPG)
Motel: Travelodge[book rooms]
Parking Prices
First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £8 and HGVs £16, or £18 to include a £7.50 food voucher.
Prices can be paid through the phone, with instructions in each car park. They are strictly enforced by CP Plus.
Trivia
Heston opened two years late, at a cost of £500,000. On 28th May 1981 the westbound services were destroyed in a fire.
The services are built on part of the site of the old Heston Aerodome, a disused airfield which the government used to build part of the M4 and the services. It's located amongst one of the most controversial road features in the country: the M4 bus lane!
Another service area is wanted between Heston and Reading, although they are only 32 miles away the problem is traffic joining from the M25 hasn't had any services for over 70 miles. When Cobham and Beaconsfield are built the problem will be largely solved and the latest plans may well be shelved.
It features briefly in the film 'Hot Fuzz' and was referenced in 'Gavin and Stacey', where Nessa says that she'll be "Stopping off at Heston's" and Bryn says that he "doesn't want to stop before Heston", although true pedants would have noticed that their journey from Essex to Wales wouldn't have passed the services.
Several sources are adamant that TV-chef Heston Blumenthal was named after his parent's love of the services, although he claims this isn't true.
Survey Results
In 2006, the services were rated at 3/5 by Holiday Which?
Also in 2006, Heston won a five star loo award.
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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Anonymous
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hello first time i visited moto service. the people at this service could nt speak a word of english. no customer service and the washrooms were very dirty. where do they get the staff from. people stop at the station after a long days rest. and you have to pay so much for a crap service like this. i shall be contacting the headoffice about this.
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Anonymous
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to the people complaining about units shutting early: many of the franchises operated on the motorway such as burger king are only allowed to be open from and to a certain time, typically BK will open at 10am and close at 10pm. in many of these smaller it is just not feasible to operate 24 hours especially with brand standards ensuring that there is a minimum number of staff at all times regardless of how busy it might be. I do agree that the food options offered in edc/restaurants is poor and over priced and offers little choice past a certain time.
for those who mention parking fines, the regulations for each car park are clearly displayed on the parking areas and where services are linked to local areas and towns it is not the best option to offer free parking for whoever. perhaps a system where paying customers purchasing coffee and food within get free parking for extra time would be a sensible recommendation for the future.
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qwerty
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Your toilets are dreadful. Loose fittings, mouldy, broken hand driers, not existent attendants. Westbound needs a century of refurb, interior is old.  |
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Anonymous
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Shocked. I parked up at the service station, had a coffee and, so tired, fell asleep in the car...I am now faced with a £50 parking fine. I've never heard of having to pay for parking at services...and was in the car, so could have had a kind warning instead of a horrible bill when I got home after a long drive!
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george collins
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saturday 30th jan 2010 10am westbound M4 heston services
stopped for washroom and something to eat big mistake on both counts toilets disgusting dirty stained no hot water no hand drying facility at all sinks dirty and fittings loose etc its an unhygenic mess!!!
EDC breakfast !!!whats all that about food old dry and some of it has to have been left over from the previous evening???went for full english advertised at 11 items only got 8 took it back to complain the two guys serving(staff) suddenly couldnt speak english.
That lot cost me £8.50 give or take (including tea !!)
never again
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Anonymous
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Dear sirs,
just to say that i call into the services about 3 times a week.
Last evening I witnessed a few things you might like to take note of.
1. The toilets were smelly and only one of the hand driers was working(the lowest one on the wall for children.)
2. There were some less than desirable people hanging around outside. So much so that I returned to my vehicle as soon as possible.
3. To cap it all, the burger King meal I had was dreadful. The chips were cold and the onion in the burger was inedible. It was the outer skin
and was definitely very old. I kept it in case I fell ill.
I realise that the standards of the food is not your responsibility and you maybe cannot prevent people straying onto the grounds(they were not customers),
but it needs investigating.
Last month a group of foreigners even set up a camp under a tree in the car park. they even took cardboard boxes from your refuge area to make bedding.
I hope you respond to this email as i thought you should be aware of the situation.
I, due to my work use service stations throughout the country, and must say that Heston west bound rates the lowest I use.
Having said that I would like to state that the east bound services is very satisfactory and the staff,especially at the far end coffee counter, are very helpful and polite.
Your acknowledgement and views would be most welcome.
yours,
N. Russell
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Alan
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Alan
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Again the same problem as Leigh Delamere west. The Costa has stolen what was the nice part of the self-service restaurant with the windows and the remaining self service restaurant is now shoehorned into a small dark corner and looks to offer much less choice than the old Fresh Express - or the Welcome Break and Roadchef alternatives! This is becoming a Moto theme!
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Mike
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Appalling is the only printable word I have to say following my visit last night to Heston services westbound at just gone 23:00. The services advertised Burger King and Costa but both outlets were shut. There was a hot food counter offering pies and sausages etc. I have a deep mistrust of such food so I wanted a sandwich. There were four rolls of two different kinds available which represents a very poor choce. The sandwich was vey stale and practically tasteless. I only wish it had been in a cardboard wrapper because I would have enjoyed eating that more and it may have provided more nutrition. It was joyless and wretched. I paid £2.99 for what was possibly the worst sandwich that I have ever attempted to eat and it will be a very cold day in hell before I will ever use a Moto Service area again. Pathetic.
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MatthewB6323
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I visited Heston westbound last night at about 11pm. Despite being signposted from the road as 'Burger King/Costa', and with a large combined logo for the two surmounting the entrance, both were closed, as was the WH Smith unit, leaving the E&DC counter battling on. The front of desk man was very polite, helpful, and apologetic about his limited stocks. I only wanted crisps and an apple, which could be managed easily, but those wanting hot food were limited to a beef pie, chicken burger, sausage and chips. Nonetheless, moderately busy, and an atmosphere of triumph over adversity.
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| 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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