The traditional “gateway to the north”, the Watford Gap motorway service area on the M1 in Northamptonshire, was originally known as The Blue Boar.
The Blue Boar company operated garages and forecourts across the Midlands, including close to Watford village on the A5. When the A5 looked set to lose a lot of trade to the new M1 motorway, Blue Boar learned that a motorway service area was being planned close to their Watford depot and competed to operate it.
Their bid was successful, and the Blue Boar opened in early 1961. The American-style design of the buildings had never been seen in Britain before (Harry Weedon, the architect for Odeon Cinemas, designed the main building).
Fronted by a filling station and acres of parking space, it divided itself into a cafe called ‘TopGrill’ – where long-distance lorry drivers and ton-up boys swapped stories – and a grandly signposted cafeteria called ‘TopTray’ (later renamed ‘Pick-a-Platter’) where weary travellers were seated facing plate glass windows with traffic flying past outside on the motorway while waitresses bought tea, sausage, eggs and chips.
The waitress-service restaurant became entirely self-service in 1965.
It was a big, brash, cheerful place where you could shake to the jukebox or quietly sit the night away, watching the comings and goings of the cars on the M1.
The Blue Boar soon became the all-night cafe that the big beat stars of the 1960s headed for after one-nighters in the Midlands, and the Jukebox became an absolute barometer of success, with every band wanting their 7″ included on it.
The coach you saw turning in from the M1 may have been carrying a still-swinging jazz band or a whole show of stars trying to snatch a quick meal before moving on to the next town on tour.
The restaurant ran to a steak at nine shillings, but most of the beat stars settled for sausage and chips, more often than not.
The Blue Boar also played host to commercial travellers, teens going home from a dance in Birmingham, and the family motorist. But in the middle of the night, you’d find them heavily outnumbered by the showbiz set.
As the bands became more famous and their Bedford vans were too lowly for the new celebrities, they would eat on their bus or send in the roadies for takeaways.
By the 1970s, the Blue Boar’s heyday was well and truly over and The Kinks (Motorway) and Roy Harper (Watford Gap) penned songs about the demise of the roadside scene at the Watford Gap: “Watford Gap, Watford Gap, a plate of grease and a load of crap”
The business was family-owned until it was sold to managers in 1995. Blue Boar sold their business to Roadchef in July 1998.
Their bid was successful, and the Blue Boar opened in early 1961. The American-style design of the buildings had never been seen in Britain before (Harry Weedon, the architect for Odeon Cinemas, designed the main building).
The coach you saw turning in from the M1 may have been carrying a still-swinging jazz band or a whole show of stars trying to snatch a quick meal before moving on to the next town on tour.
