Kate's Cabin services
A1 northbound at Peterborough
Signposted from the road.
PE7 3UJ
map and directions
Two sites staggered between junctions, with no public connection between them.
An old truckstop on the northbound A1 has been overshadowed by it's larger competitor less than a mile to the south.
Facilities
Outdoor Space: Grass verge only Forecourt: Welcome Break, Londis, Greggs, f'real Milkshakes, Rollover, Starbucks on the Go
Parking Prices
Short stay customer parking is available with HGV parking available behind the filling station.
No overnight parking is available.
This information is provided to us by third parties. You should always check with staff on site.
Contact Details
đą Address:
Great North Road
Chesterton
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
PE7 3UJ
- đ Official Welcome Break/Kate's Cabin website
- Foursquare Page
- đ what3words: ///avoid.bride.worth
- more map options
Trivia and History
A truckstop and café opened here in the 1930s. Known as Kate's Cabin, it became a well-known landmark and has now leant its name to the whole service area. The truckstop is remembered by lorry drivers mainly for its potholed car park.
The site gained fuel facilities from BP, which became self-service in 1978. The fuel facilities were renewed in 1987, and BP built a full filling station with their BP Connect store and Wild Bean Café concession in 2005. In late 2015, BP sold the filling station to an independent dealer, who introduced a SPAR store and Subway to the site.
The site was later acquired by Applegreen in late 2017 who rebranded the SPAR store to their Applegreen branding and kept the Subway concession.
Applegreen purchased a significant stake of Welcome Break in November 2018. One of the trade-offs of the purchase was that this site would eventually be re-branded Welcome Break, and adjusted to reflect the rest of their estate. Welcome Break took operational control in summer 2021, keeping its unusual name of "Kate's Cabin".
A Greggs store was added to the forecourt, opening on 4 December 2020. Kate's Cabin café closed at the end of March 2022. The HGV parking continued for a short while after before being removed in summer 2022.
The Subway store permanently closed on 17 August 2022 and was replaced by an extended Greggs store, as well as an additional food to go area.
The site was officially de-branded from BP on 1 April 2023 and was fully rebranded to the Welcome Break fuel brand during summer 2023, with a new Londis store also replacing the Applegreen branding. Welcome Break revealed that the facility has a 6.5% turn-in rate.
Reconstruction
Welcome Break announced in May 2023 that thy intended to demolish the former Kate's Cabin building, which they called "tired in appearance". They would replace it with two drive thru units, most likely Starbucks and Burger King. These would have 36 car parking spaces and 10 electric vehicle charging points, provided under a canopy.
The new facilities would be accessed from a mini roundabout at the front of the forecourt. There would be seven HGV parking spaces behind the shop, and a bay for caravans.
Alwalton Southbound
On the opposite side of the road was the Alwalton Little ChefHistory and a Travelodge.
With no fuel available, this was never able to be signposted as an official service area. Even so, it's worth noting that it was one of the oldest Little Chefs in the country, even if it was rebuilt in 1986 in its more familiar brick styling. At the same time a new Little Chef Lodge opened, which is now the Travelodge. The old restaurant was in the middle of today's car park, and there was a small, abandoned petrol station there too.
The building gained a Burger King in an extension in 1998. The restaurant lasted until the very end of Little Chef, January 2018, when the rights for EG Group to use the brand expired. Keeping it this long was unlikely to be a deliberate decision, but the result of the new owners having problems converting it to a Starbucks. Time had ran out and the restaurant transferred to the temporary brand EG Diner.
Both EG Diner and the Burger King closed on 23 May 2018. For a long time it was not known what EG Group intended to do with the building, as it lay empty. The old building was demolished in June 2019 and a new Starbucks opened on 10 January 2020.
Alternatives
| Previous: | Next: | |
| Peterborough (1 mile) | Services on the A1 | Stibbington (4 miles) |
| Wyboston (southbound, 26 miles) | Welcome Break services | Newark (43 miles) |