Leicester Forest East services is a motorway service station situated between junctions 21 and 21A of the M1 motorway, near Leicester, England.

History

It was designed for the opening of the second phase of the M1 in 1966 (seven years after the first phase was completed), based on an Italian design used on the Autostrade. This design is very rare in Britain.

Construction

The contract was awarded to Ross in January 1963, to cost £500,000 and to open November 1964.

Work was to start in November 1963.The contract was awarded on Friday 21 August 1964 to R.M. Douglas Construction Ltd of Erdington. The architect was Howard V Lobb.

Opening

It was opened on Friday 6 May 1966 by Sir Cyril Osborne, the MP for Louth.

The site became operated under the Motoross group, until 1983, becoming Welcome Break in early 1984. Motoross, with five service areas, was headquartered at the site, and during the first years of Welcome Break. Welcome Break was bought by THF on 21 July 1986 for £190m, who changed their service stations' name to Welcome Break in June 1988. The Welcome Break headquarters moved to Newport Pagnell. The motorway division of Trust Houses Forte Catering had always been headquartered at Newport Pagnell since 1959.

Food

The services features a bridge-restaurant, between the two bases crossing the motorway, containing all of the service station's restaurants. At the time of opening it was operated by the Ross Group and featured a Terence Conran designed restaurant with a waitress silver service restaurant.

Ross Group had carried out research in the US, Canada and in Europe. The whole site seated 800 people.

• The Captain's Table Restaurant
• Two transport cafes, seating 105

Buildings

It would have parking for 200 vehicles.

Description

It contains a number of shops and fast food outlets straddling the motorway.

There is no legal vehicular access to the motorway service station from nearby Leicester Forest East, although there is nothing physically stopping cars from exiting to the A47.

Proposed closure

Leicester Forest East services faced permanent closure in 2017 if the M1/M69 junction had been developed to increase capacity to accommodate predicted traffic growth.