Interior of the amenity building at Pevensey in August 2024. It’s all occupied by Starbucks, who have completed a large refurb on this site, adding brighter colours & a cleaner look. The renovated interior is very clean, with light grey floor tillage and oak wall cladding. You can tell EG spent a lot improving this, already quite modern, Starbucks. It was refurbished later in 2023, & still looks brand new. It’s now totally unrecognisable from the inside that this building opened as a Little Chef in 1995. Due to its location, Pevensey’s Little Chef was one of their smaller restaurants as it had quite low footfall. This Little Chef building opened 2 years after the petrol station & Little Chef moved out in 2008, lasting 13 years. For 5 years, the interior of this building was in poor condition following its neglect. There were floods & mould growing as a result. McDonald’s expressed an interest in opening a drive thru here in 2012. It’s unclear whether they would’ve demolished this building & built a new restaurant, or refurbished this building to accommodate drive thru windows. Instead in 2013, EuroGarages bought this building and Starbucks opened here in September 2013. There are many A-road services which look identical to this, & in due course, they will all be refurbished like how Pevensey has been. It was immaculately clean during my visit & made for a nice, refreshing stop off the A27. Starbucks are known for rapid price inflation, and unfortunately, EGs franchise of Starbucks are no exception. It’s possibly cheaper to get coffee at the Wild Bean Cafe in the forecourt. My visit was made very early in the morning a short while after this Starbucks opened for the day (it does not remain open 24 hours, it opens from 6:30am-7pm most days). As a result, I was the only customer in the entire amenity building. This resulted in a nice clear photo of an empty seating area. During the day, the amenity building’s small size means it fills up with customers quickly & in some cases, there is not enough seating, so customers have to takeaway their Starbucks products. Starbucks is clearly signposted from both directions of the A27 so customers know exactly how to access it from the roundabout.

Photo taken on 12/08/2024 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Pevensey, EG Group, Starbucks, A27