Watford Gap
| Watford Gap | |
| RoadChef | |
| Road: | M1 between J16 and J17 |
| Address: | Watford Gap Motorway Services Area M1 Watford Northampton Northamptonshire NN6 7UZ |
| Telephone number: | 01327 879001 |
| Signposted from the road? | Yes |
| Opened: | 1959 |
| Previous operators: | Blue Boar |
| Grid reference: | SP599680 |
| Services type: | Two sites located between junctions, connected by a pedestrian footbridge. |
| Visit Watford Gap/RoadChef's official website Facebook Page | |
One of those services which everyone talks about but you never use, Watford Gap is a nice service station in a nasty casing. It generally picks up mixed reviews and has been refurbished several times.
Contents |
Facilities
General: BT Openzone, Business Lounge, Showers, Traffic Information
Restaurants: RestBite (southbound only), Hot Food Company (northbound only), Wimpy (northbound only), The Burger Company (southbound only), Costa Coffee
Shops: WH Smith, Fonebitz
Fuel: BP (pump types unknown)
Motel: Premier Inn[book rooms]
Parking Prices
First two hours free for all vehicles, after which HGVs must pay £20, or £22 to include a £10 food voucher.
Further information is not available, please update this if you know.
Trivia and History
The traditional 'gateway to the north', Watford Gap is Britain's oldest and quite possibly most notorious service area. It is named after the nearby area, more specifically the nearby village of Watford, however this is often mixed up with the much larger Watford found further down the M1. Like most services, the question staff are asked most is "where are we?", but that's usually followed by "is that near London?".
Watford (the small one) has a long-running transport history. It sits off Watling Street, the Roman Road which is today part of the A5 and formed an important pre-motorway route between London and Birmingham. It is also near the Great Union Canal (again, London to Birmingham), the West Coast Main Line (surprise, surprise, London to Birmingham) and most recently Britain's first motorway, the M1, which originally ran from London to Birmingham and passes through the village. When you consider all this, it would only make sense to make this the home of our first service station.
The services sit against the mainline and they opened on the same day as the motorway, 2nd November 1959. It is built on a disused farm, and when it was due to open the buildings weren't ready so food was sold from temporary old sheds.
Blue Boar were the original operator and this came to be as they ran a hotel on the A5 and claimed that the opening of the motorway would ruin their business, so they were offered the services as compensation. Blue Boar continued to run the services and built three others, until 1999 where they were bought by RoadChef.
When the services opened they became a prominent landmark for drivers and their fine-dining eating experiences meant that they were very popular. They were such a novelty that they reached their maximum capacity on their first day! The original plan was that Watford Gap would become a lorries-only service station and the second one, Newport Pagnell down the road, would be for cars. However, at the time Blue Boar didn't want to build another service area and they didn't want to send half their traffic to someone else, so the plans never went ahead.
Roy Harper once released a song titled Watford Gap with the chorus "Watford Gap, Watford Gap, grease on the plates, it's a load of crap" - the full lyrics can be found on Guga Lyrics. It was on his album 'Bullinamingvase', but was dropped after Blue Boar allegedly threatened to sue. Some sources claim the song was dropped as a member of his EMI board also worked for the services, but that's unlikely. Either way, a full version of the song is very hard to get hold of.
The services seem to sit on an invisible line across the country which divides the north from the south. Southerners claim that there is no culture or sophistication north of Watford Gap, and northerners claim that the line forms the boundary of humour, humility and humanity. People will also refer to things as being "the best ____ this side of Watford Gap", however this is often shortened to just Watford, not at all helped by the signs on the M1 which read 'Watford & The North', potentially implying that Watford is the last place in the south. These expressions are generally unheard of anywhere beyond Surrey, Derby and The West Midlands.
Watford Gap was where RoadChef tried WH Smith, it is a success and it will soon be rolled out at all their services. In 2010 the services are likely to get a Hot Food Company restaurant, or at least have the restaurant changed to that format.
50th Anniversary Celebrations
More information: 50 Years of Motorway Services
On the 2nd November 2009 Watford Gap (Britain's first motorway service area) - and the M1 (the first long-distance motorway) turned 50 years old, and a whole host of names including former members of staff were invited to help celebrate the occasion.
On the 28th January 2009 RoadChef paid £1000 at an auction for a book with autographs of various celebrities who visited the services in the '60s and '70s. They were collected by an ex-Blue Boar employee and scans from this were displayed at the services.
On the 16th and 17th October the BBC filmed various scenes all over the services which were used to create 'Watford Gap: The Musical', a nine-minute musical about "the one-stop round the clock roadside pioneer". It was written by Benjamin Till who, amongst other things, had previously written 'A1: The Road Musical'. The musical can be seen online and was premièred at 7pm at the northbound Costa Coffee to an invited audience. It was also aired at this time on BBC Radio Northampton, who hosted their drivetime show live at the services in anticipation of the musical, talking to various visitors during the show.
The services were decorated with balloons and a red carpet, and a fingerpost sign was added to the car park directing people to "the north" and "the south". The transport minister Chris Mole officially re-opened the services by unveiling an plaque within the services.
As a throwback to the early days, the RestBite restaurant was selling cups of tea to all visitors for 6p, however people soon discovered that free refreshments were being provided too!
The event was reported on 'BBC Breakfast', 'BBC News at Six', 'Look East', 'Inside Out' and many local BBC Radio Stations. The whole thing was done whilst keeping the services fully operational, so many ordinary customers were surprised to pull in and be guided to a parking space by marshals and meeting a foyer full of people in suits.
On this day a petition was created to have 'Watford Gap' added to the Oxford English Dictionary for its relevance to the north-south divide.
Survey Results
In 2006, Holiday Which? rated the services at 3/5.
Alternatives
| Previous: | Next: | |
| Leicester Forest East (24 miles) Corley (M6, 23 miles) | Services on the M1 | Northampton (10 miles) |
| Tibshelf (67 miles) Norton Canes (M6 Toll, 54 miles) | RoadChef services | Northampton (10 miles)' |
Comments and Reviews
Something not right? Anyone can edit this page, simply log in or register first.
All Pages | Contact | About MSO | Top of Page
This site is not affiliated with any motorway service area or operator.
© 2010 Motorway Services Online, unless stated otherwise. You may copy information from the site, provided you abide by the conditions set out in the disclaimer which can be found at "http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Disclaimer".
Powered by MediaWiki.