The large communal seating area at Folkestone, centrally located amongst all the food units. This seating area hasn’t changed at all since the site opened in 2008 (same tables & chairs). Seating is also very neatly arranged in rows. Stop24s expectations for the site when they built it were clearly very different to the reality. Otherwise, it would’ve been built much smaller. Folkestone took the title of largest UK motorway services from Clacket Lane West when it opened. It's very open & bright due to the glass design of the building. It's very quiet due to its close proximity to the Channel Tunnel & Dover Port. Stop 24 is meant to be an "Early Port Arrival" facility, but the idea never really took off as most customers would arrive at their actual ports early and wait for their onward journey. The interior of Folkestone is arranged very neatly, with all the food outlets to the right & Hythe Convenience Store & the Leger Holidays facility to the left. All of the food outlets are takeaway only & none of them offer their own customer seating, making this seating area more important. Stop24 were sold to Channel Ports in 2022, who are owned by Getlink. This change means the interior of Folkestone will be reduced to make way for the indoor fitness suite they are building. If this fitness suite is profitable and well used, they may decide to extend it, causing more of the internal space to be used, creating further downsizing of the food court. Additionally, Stop24 plan to add two Roadchef operated drive thru units to the site in the form of a McDonald's and Costa. This is expected to bring more customers to the site, but will likely drive trade away from this amenity building. Sadly, the entire place feels very depressing. It's disappointing given how large it looks from the main road. If Folkestone services was on a busier road & served a larger volume of customers, it would be a success story. It's a shame to see a modern building go through so much neglect. Folkestone has also experienced a high turnover of brands, with common motorway names such as Starbucks, WHSmith, Burger King and Wimpy all having a history of operating here. Units are leased out to brands at Folkestone, making it more like Extra sites, which do the same. My visit was at 12pm, a time when you'd expect this seating area to be fairly busy. As the photo shows, the place was very quiet.

Photo taken on 21/07/2024 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Folkestone, Stop 24, M20