Heston Services
The eastbound services building.
Heston Services is located in Greater London
Heston Services
Heston Services
Location within Greater London
Information
CountyGreater London
RoadM4
Coordinates:51°29′17″N 0°23′28″W / 51.48807°N 0.39106°W / 51.48807; -0.39106
OperatorMoto Hospitality
WebsiteMoto

Heston services is a motorway service station on the M4 motorway in the London Borough of Hounslow, built on land that once formed part of the now defunct Heston Aerodrome.

History

It is owned by Moto. The 11-mile £19m Chiswick-Langley section of the M4 (London - South Wales Motorway) opened on Wednesday 24 March 1965, together with the Heathrow Airport spur.

Planning

Consulting engineers were Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, and it was built by Costain, with 16 acres on each side.[1]The 11 miles of M4 from Chiswick to Langley were the first to be computer controlled from the police centre at Heston services, with digital motorway signs in March 1969, opened by Labour minister Richard Marsh, Baron Marsh.[2] GEC received the £120,000 contract in March 1968, with 57 illuminated signs.[3]

Construction

During construction of this section, much vandalism took place near Harmondsworth and Harlington. The lighting of the site was provided by the street lighting division of British Lighting Industries. The 100 ft main lighting columns were supplied by British Steel Corporation's Northern and Tubes Group (Stewarts & Lloyds).

Out of London

The westbound side was opened on 4 March 1967. It had 46 petrol pumps. It was opened by Granada Ltd, and was their third service area after Toddington (1964) and Frankley (1966). It had been planned to open in July 1966. The westbound section is accessed via Phoenix Way, and is adjacent to the site where most of the Heston Aerodrome buildings were located.[4]

The 2019 Motorway Services User Survey found that Heston's westbound side was in the top five motorway services in the UK for customer satisfaction.[5]

Into London

The eastbound side was opened on 4 January 1968 by the then Miss United Kingdom, Jennifer Lynn Lewis and entertainer Joe Brown. The whole project had cost £500,000.

Location

Heston services is located between junctions 2 (Brentford Interchange, Lionel Road) and 3 (A312, Cranford Parkway Interchange) of the M4, near the suburbs of Heston and Cranford. It is one of only two motorway service stations within the M25; the other is London Gateway services (formerly Scratchwood services) on the M1, which opened in 1969.

Directly west of the westbound side is the British Airways sports ground; on the west of the sports ground was their Concorde Centre, now known as Heston Venue. The service station is in the TW5 postcode. Further west is Cranford Park.

Roger Moore is mentioned as passing Heston Services when supposedly on his way to appear in the first episode of Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge.

Heston services made a short but pivotal appearance in Edgar Wright's 2007 film Hot Fuzz.

Bryn from BBC’s Gavin & Stacey mentions, in the early episodes in the series, making a scheduled stop at either Leigh Delamere or Heston services on the family’s first trip from Barry Island to Billericay. In the 2019 Christmas Special, Nessa says, "Only a fool'd stop at Heston."

References

  1. ↑ Middlesex County Times Friday 16 April 1965, page 11
  2. ↑ Middlesex County Times Friday 21 March 1969, page 9
  3. ↑ Birmingham Daily Post Thursday 29 February 1968, page 19
  4. ↑ "Phoenix Way". google.co.uk/maps. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  5. ↑ Smithers, Rebecca (31 July 2019). "Severn Bridge services named as worst on England's motorways". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  • Times 23 March 1965, page 16
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