Peartree

Peartree
Welcome Break
29 more photos in the gallery
Road:	A34/A40/A44 Peartree Interchange (Oxford Ring Road)
Address:	Peartree Roundabout Woodstock Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 8JZ
Telephone number:	01865 514268
Signposted from the road?	Yes
Opened:	1964
Previous operators:	Autogrill, Granada, Little Chef
Previous names:	Oxford Peartree
Grid reference:	SP495108
Services type:	Single site located at a junction.
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Once a dire and ageing Little Chef, these services were recently taken over by Welcome Break and given a completely new list of brands. It's open from 11am until "late".

Due to a shortage of space HGVs are banned from the services, but there is room for coaches.

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Facilities

General: BT Openzone, Welcome Break Gaming
Restaurants: KFC, Starbucks, Costa Express, Krispy Kreme
Shops: Waitrose
Fuel: Shell (with Autogas LPG, Costa Express & Deli2Go)
Motel: Travelodge^{[book rooms]}, Holiday Inn^{[book rooms]}

Parking Prices

First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £6. Prices can be paid at the pay and display machines in each parking area.

Further information is not available, please update this if you know.

Trivia and History

The services as a Little Chef.

The services were built by Trusthouse Forte in the '70s and then transferred to Granada in 1996. It was quite an upmarket service area with the first Granary restaurant and a carvery, and the walls down to the basement toilets being lined with carpet. It was built alongside the Excelsior Motor Lodge, dating from the 1960s, which by the early 1990s was branded as a Welcome Lodge. It was the first service area with a Little Chef alongside it, which was at first housed in a prefab-type building opposite the main building. Like Trusthouse Forte's MSAs, the services were badged as Welcome Break from the mid-1980s. Granada acquired the site with Forte in 1996 and retained it when the motorway arm of Welcome Break was spun off. At some point around this time Little Chef was moved into the main building, displacing the Granary.

Under Compass ownership the elderly hotel - called the Oxford Lodge - was largely demolished with two hotels being built on the site. The larger, more upmarket hotel was promoted as the first Posthouse to be built in twenty years, but the hotels opened following the divestment by Compass of its hotel and roadside businesses and the larger hotel thus opened as a Holiday Inn, the smaller as a Travelodge.

Little Chef remained the main occupant of the main building, alongside Burger King. Compass experimented with an Upper Crust counter and a joint Little Chef/Harry Ramsden's menu; the People's Restaurant Company demolished the games area and opened a Coffee Tempo!. The shop still used Granada branding until it was closed at the end of 2009.

Although the main restaurant was well-run, the building itself was run-down, with dirty, poorly signed toilets and a car park with few signs to it. Welcome Break took over the site in April 2010 and completely refitted the site, with the new one opening at 11am on the 9th July. It remains to be seen whether they can give it the kick it needs.

Alternatives