South Mimms services

South Mimms services is a motorway service area accessible from junction 23 of the M25 motorway in England near South Mimms, Hertfordshire. Constructed in 1986 as the first service area on the M25, it is operated by Welcome Break. It is built on the site of Bignell's Corner, named after a garden centre, Bignell and Cutbush, which was close to the junction of the old A6, and A1.[1][2][3] At the junction there was also a pub, the Middlesex Arms, and an Esso Motor hotel, near which developed a notorious truck stop, the Beacon Cafe, infamous for the selling of black market goods, and for prostitution.[3][4][5][2]

South Mimms Services
South Mimms services (Hertfordshire)
Information
CountyHertfordshire
RoadM25
Coordinates:51.686927°N 0.222956°W / 51.686927; -0.222956
OperatorWelcome Break
Date opened1986
WebsiteWelcome Break

History

When constructed in 1986,[6] it was the first service area directly accessible from the M25.

The building was destroyed in August 1998 following a fire started in a deep fryer with no fire suppression system; an incident which has been subsequently studied.[7]

An unusual heist of 2,900 dresses all of the same design occurred in the lorry park at the service area on the morning of 13 August 2013. The loot was valued at £17,000.[8]

The 2019 Motorway Services User Survey found that South Mimms was in the top five motorway services in the UK for customer satisfaction.[9]

References
  1. Issues, The London Gazette, 25 August 1989, page 9937
  2. Mymshall Brook - Bignall's Corner Edith's Streets; London Local History, 1 April 2013
  3. A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5, A P Baggs, 1976, pp. 271-282. South Mimms: Introduction'
  4. Mark Roodhouse (21 March 2013). Black Market Britain: 1939-1955. Oxford University Press. p. 84.
  5. Bignell's_Corner, motorwayservicesonline.co.uk
  6. Motorway Services Trivia - Chronology Archived 2 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine - Accessed 16 February 2009
  7. Out of the frying pan… by VOELKERT C; in the Fire prevention Journal ISSN 0309-6866 CODEN FPRVD7 1998, no314, pp. 24-26
  8. Hannah Crouch. "Thousands of dresses stolen from South Mimms services". Tindle Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  9. Smithers, Rebecca (31 July 2019). "Severn Bridge services named as worst on England's motorways". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
Next anticlockwise:
Cobham services		 Motorway service stations on the
M25 motorway		 Next clockwise:
Thurrock services
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