A46 Warwick Bypass
Signposted from the road.
CV35 8RH
map and directions
Two sites located between junctions, with no public connection between them.
A pair of petrol stations immediately north of Longbridge Island.
Facilities
Catering: Starbucks Drive Thru
Outdoor Space: Small grass areas next to entry slips (caution needed)
Charging Points: southbound only: bp pulse 150kW CCS
Forecourt: on both sides: BP, Wild Bean Café, Free Cash Machine
plus northbound only: BP Connect
and southbound only: M&S Simply Food
Parking Prices
Short stay customer parking is available for cars at all facilities. No HGV parking is available.
Parking and use of the southbound forecourt is limited to 30 minutes maximum stay from entry to exit. These restrictions are strictly enforced by BP.
This information is provided to us by third parties. You should always check with staff on site.
Contact Details
🏢 Address:
Budbrooke Services
Old Budbrooke Road
Budbrooke
Warwick
Warwickshire
CV35 8RH
Trivia and History
The service area was first proposed in 1973 by Warwick Apprenticing Charities and the owner of nearby Budbrooke Lodge Farm. At this stage it was a 23-acre plan, with a caravan park and two hotels included. Planning permission was refused by Warwick Borough Council, who blamed the Department of the Environment's dislike of new exits being built on the bypass.
The Department of the Environment reiterated their objection during the 1974 public inquiry, which concluded that there was insufficient evidence that a service area was needed. It also recommended that a footbridge should have been included.
This situation was revisited, and the service area was able to open in around 1981, as a pair of Little Chefs and Mobil petrol stations.
By this stage, the planning authorities were by then keen on Budbrooke being presented as an option for traffic on the M40, where there had been a long debate about possible service area locations. In fact at one point in the late 1980s they even considered building a flyover at Budbrooke to make access easier for M40 traffic. Eventually the authorities relented and allowed the M40 to be provided with its own service areas instead.
Restaurants
The two Little Chefs were known as the Warwick North and Warwick South branches. They gained Burger Kings in around 1996. The restaurants were closed as part of the sale by People Restaurant Group in 2007.
Little Chef's new owners RCapital reopened the northbound restaurant on 8 October 2008. The event was marked by a gala opening party attended by RCapital's chairman, Peter Ward. Unfortunately the reopening didn't last long and the northbound restaurant closed again in 2012.
The southbound restaurant later reopened as the Autogrill Cafe for a few years, before becoming The Breakfast Junction. This closed in 2018 with the building remaining abandoned.
Coffee Shop Era
The petrol stations were refurbished between 2008 and 2009, and the southbound filling station was further refurbished in 2017, where it gained an M&S Simply Food store.
A Euro Garages-operated Starbucks drive thru opened on the southbound side in August 2015. During late 2018, the former northbound Little Chef building was demolished to make way for another Euro Garages-operated Starbucks Drive Thru which opened on 20 February 2019. The southbound Starbucks was refurbished in February 2021.
BP added a BP Pulse electric vehicle charger to their southbound forecourt in early 2023.
Alternatives
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| Oversley Mill (14 miles) Warwick (M40 south, 7 miles) Rowborough (A429 south, 17 miles) | Services on the A46 | Binley (southbound, 11 miles) Leicester Forest East (M1 north, 32 miles) |