Toddington

Toddington
Moto
13 more photos in the gallery
Road:	M1 between J11 and J12
Address:	Moto Ltd Toddington Dunstable Bedfordshire LU5 6HR
Telephone number:	01525 878400
Signposted from the road?	As Burger King/Costa/M&S
Opened:	1964
Previous operators:	Granada
Grid reference:	TL030287
Services type:	Two sites located between junctions, connected by a pedestrian footbridge.
Visit Toddington Northbound/Moto's official website Visit Toddington Southbound/Moto's official website Facebook Page

Enriched with facilities but not good looks, Toddington is a busy service area and the first in a while for traffic heading from the M25.

Main Page | Photo Gallery | Location, Map and Directions

Facilities

Northbound

General: Truck Wash, Lucky Coin, Moto Free WiFi, Showers
Restaurants: Burger King, Costa, Eat & Drink Co., West Cornwall Pasty Co., Upper Crust, Greggs
Shops: Cotton Traders, Fone Bitz, M&S Simply Food, WHSmith (with Costa Express Krispy Kreme)
Fuel: BP (with: Costa Express Air1 AdBlue)
Motel: Travelodge^{[book rooms]} - on the southbound side but accessible to northbound traffic

Southbound

General: Faith Room, Truck Wash, Lucky Coin, Moto Free WiFi, Showers
Restaurants: Costa, Burger King, Eat & Drink Co.
Shops: Fone Bitz, M&S Simply Food, WHSmith (with Costa Express Krispy Kreme)
Fuel: BP (with: Costa Express Air1 AdBlue LPG)
Motel: Travelodge^{[book rooms]}

Parking Prices

First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £12 and HGVs £20.50, or £22 to include a £9 food voucher.

Prices are paid using PayByPhone - more details. The location code is 2469 (northbound) and 2470 (southbound).

The fees are strictly enforced by CP Plus.

Trivia

Toddington houses Moto's Head Office, meaning that the services have been the pilot test for many things including WHSmith, 'Power Naps' and M&S Simply Food. It featured in the BBC's 'Top Gear' and until recently it had Scoop, Halfords, T2 and Birthdays stores, making it one of Moto's main retail sites. Many of these have now become storage space. The offices have been here throughout the majority of the services' existence, having moved here from Heston, and before that, London.

Even in 1974 Toddington was the first service station with a "free-flow snack supermarket layout", which was described by a design journal as an "interesting initiative" that promises "promises a much improved service to the public".

It was Granada's first service area, opening in 1965. It was the third service area to open on the M1, after Newport Pagnell. There is actually a second storey on each side, originally housing a waitress restaurant, now just used for storage.

Moto had planned to build a new Costa stand next to a new entrance at the far end of the northbound services, potentially saving the last remaining motorway Little Chef, but the plans were refused as the services were part of green belt land.

In July 2010, The Barber Shop on the southbound side, situated in a portakabin in the car park, closed down and then reopened in December 2011 as a Faith Room.

Survey Results

In May 2012 and August 2011, Visit England rated the services as 3 stars.

The wide variety of shops was praised by Lord Adonis (Secretary of State for Transport) during his surprise visit in September 2009.

The services were inspected by the AA on the 24th and 25th of March 2007. These are their results:

The services were said to be well priced(!) with secure, clean facilities, but the staff were poor and there was very little to smile about outside. The AA said that the poor result could be down to the fact that the services were being refurbished at the time they were inspected and they would improve afterwards.

In 2006, Toddington was rated 4/5 by Holiday Which?

Also in 2006 the services won a five-star loo award.

Alternatives

With thanks to John and the user 'Ziathon' for the information used on this page.

AA survey results from the Automobile Association, you can view the full report and what they were looking for in this PDF document.