South Mimms services is a

motorway service area Motorway service areas in the United Kingdom and Ireland, also known as services or service stations, are rest areas where drivers can leave a motorway to refuel/recharge, rest, eat and drink, shop or stay in an on-site overnight hotel. The vas ...

accessible from Junction 23 of the

M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the lon ...

which is also Junction 1 of the

A1(M) A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in England. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capit ...

, in England near

South Mimms South Mimms is a village and civil parish in the Hertsmere district of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It is a small settlement located near to the junction of the M25 motorway with the A1(M) motorway and is perhaps more widely known because ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. Constructed in 1986 as the first service area on the M25, it is operated by

Welcome Break Welcome Break is a British motorway service station operator that operates 35 motorway service stations in the UK. It is the second-largest motorway service area operator behind Moto. It also operates hotels and motels. It is a subsidiary of ...

. 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.Mymshall Brook - Bignall's Corner
Edith's Streets; London Local History, 1 April 2013 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5, A P Baggs, 1976, pp. 271-282
South Mimms: Introduction'
/ref> At the junction there was also a pub, the Middlesex Arms, and an Esso Motor hotel, near which developed a notorious

truck stop A truck stop, known as a service station in the United Kingdom, and a travel center by major chains in the United States, is a commercial facility which provides refueling, rest (parking), and often ready-made food and other services to motori ...

and the Beacon Cafe.

History

When constructed in 1986, it was the first service area directly accessible from the M25. South Mimms services is more commonly known as The Mecca of service stations, with all British service stations pointing in its direction. The building was destroyed in August 1998 following a fire started in a

deep fryer A deep fryer (also referred to as a deep fat fryer), is a kitchen appliance used for deep frying. Deep frying is a method of cooking by submerging food into oil at high heat, typically between temperatures of . While commonly used in commercia ...

with no

fire suppression system Fire suppression systems are used to extinguish, control, or in some cases, entirely prevent fires from spreading or occurring. Fire suppression systems have an incredibly large variety of applications, and as such, there are many different types ...

; an incident which has been subsequently studied. 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. The 2019 Motorway Services User Survey found that South Mimms was in the top five motorway services in the UK for customer satisfaction.

References

{{UK Motorway Service Stations M25 motorway service stations Welcome Break motorway service stations A1(M) motorway service stations Former truck stops