Folkestone services
M20 at J11
(also accessible to traffic on the A20 and the B2068)
Signposted from the road.
CT21 4BL
map and directions
Single site located at a junction.
Folkestone is located just minutes from the Eurotunnel and the Port of Dover. It also doubles up as a 'Port Early Arrival Facility', meaning that anyone early for their ship or a train can stop by and rest before heading onwards.
Facilities[edit]
Catering: Café 24, Chopstix Noodle Bar, KFC, Pitstop, Subway, West Cornwall Food Company Shops: MAX 99p, WHSmith Main Amenities: Coach Interchange, Ecotricity electric vehicle charging point, Ferry Timetables, Free Cash Machines, Harbour Shipping (Bureau de Change)website, Quicksilver, Showers Motel: none Forecourt: Shell (with: Autogas LPG), Select, Deli2go, Costa Express, Air1 AdBlue, Car Wash
Parking Prices[edit]
First two hours free for all vehicles. After this, cars must pay £6 per 24 hour period. Tickets can be bought at the self service pay point next to the Bureau de Change.
Parking is available for caravans, motorhomes and HGVs in designated areas. The first two hours are free and overnight parking costs £20 or £24 to include a £5 meal voucher. The overnight parking includes free use of the Shower facilities in the main amenity building.
Last updated January 2018.
Contact Details[edit]
Address:
Stop 24 Services
Stanford Intersection
Hythe
Kent
CT21 4BL
Trivia and History[edit]
Sitting against the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Folkestone officially opened on 9 January 2008 but the services themselves actually opened with a dry run a few days earlier (before any of the signs were put up), giving them the nickname 'the secret services'. Many of the units didn't open until a few days later, and the hotel, a Days Inn, wasn't scheduled to open until Autumn 2008. However, it wasn't built at all and to this day, there is no hotel at the site.
It's located at the first exit after the Channel Tunnel, meaning the roundabouts here carry a lot of foreign-registered vehicles.
Having been removed from just about every service station, Wimpy made a surprising return to the motorway network by opening at the services. It was then removed again in 2013. Julian Graves had a store here too.
The filling station is operated by Shell.
Planning[edit]
When the M20 was being planned in 1972, it was decided services should be built near Maidstone and "Stanford", with another one opening in between. No exact location was specified for Stanford (it would probably have been slightly west of Stop 24), as studies were put on hold until further information about the planned Channel Tunnel was available.
Building a service area closer to Sellindge was considered but ruled out as the Landscape Advisory Committee would object.
By the time this was complete, the Department for Transport were no longer responsible for planning new services. In the 1990s several services were planned here but the Department for Transport rejected them all as it said they weren't suitable. In 2010 Henry Boot Developments tried to sue several companies for misrepresenting the number of visitors, facilities and signs on the motorway these services would get. The case was dismissed.
The original plans were for the services to be open by November 2007.
The Name[edit]
Folkestone, until recently, didn't actually have an official name. Stop 24, the operator, call it Stop 24 and Extra, who owned the petrol station and leased it out, called it Folkestone. As if this wasn't enough, the locals and planners called it Westenhanger and the Highways Agency called it Saltwood!
The signs on the road used to refer to it simply as 'services and port early arrivals'. In 2015, signs were erected referring to it as Folkestone services. Perhaps misguidedly, we like to take credit for that, as we are the only source which has referred to it as Folkestone consistently.
Alternatives[edit]
| Previous: | Next: | |
| Maidstone (23 miles) | Services on the M20 |
no official services Moto's Facilities at Dover Port (A20, 14 miles) |
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