Winchester services
M3 between J8 and J9
Signposted from the road? As Burger King/Costa/M&S
SO21 1PP
map and directions
Two sites located between junctions, with no public connection between them..
A service area with a history of operators, with three different operators currently providing a small range of catering and shopping facilities.
Facilities
Catering: Burger King, Costa Coffee, Costa Express, Krispy Kreme Shops: WHSmith Amenities: Showers : southbound only: Days Inn Template:Charging points Forecourt: BP, BP Connect, Wild Bean Café, AdBlue Containers, Free Cash Machine
Parking Prices
First 2 hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £15 and HGVs, caravans and motorhomes £28.50. HGVs can pay £30.50 to include a £10 food voucher.
Prices are paid using PayByPhone - more details. The location code is 2477 (northbound) and 2478 (southbound).
The fees are strictly enforced by CP Plus.
This information is provided to us by third parties. You should always check with staff on site.
Contact Details
🏢 Address:
Moto Services
Shroner Wood
Winchester
Hampshire
SO21 1PP
- 🌍 SU522355 (southbound)
Official Moto/Winchester Northbound Website - Official Moto/Winchester Southbound Website
- Foursquare Page
- 📞 Telephone number: 01962 791140
Trivia and History
A fairly obvious example of the many rebranding efforts from the current owners.
Winchester's location has been slated because not only is it quite a way from the city of Winchester, but it's located between where a substantial amount of traffic leaves for the A303 at J8 and a substantial amount of traffic joins from the A34 at J9. Several services had previously been considered around J7, but these were ruled out as the junctions here are close together and busy, so Winchester was seen as a better site. Many of the planned services north of here pre-dated this part of the M3.
Unusually, the services used to have one secret exit: in other words, authorised traffic could access the southbound services via Chillandham Lane, whereas northbound visitors had to use the M3. This has now been closed off.
Another odd curiosity is the repeated advance signs for the services that are on the motorway, for no apparent reason. The northbound signs all have a covered-up motel symbol, which may be an error or a clue to an unfulfilled plan.
Scenes from Gladiator were filmed near here before the services were built.
Here, the Days Inn is operated by Welcome Break and the BP filling stations, which are both owned by Extra, are leased out to BP Express. They had both been branded Texaco, Gold Star and Shell until then.
Jeff Stelling revealed that he did most of his research for that day's Sports Saturday at the northbound services, as that was where he could get some peace. This small piece of trivia has gone on to become Hampshire folklore.
Roadchef involvement
The services were built in a joint partnership between Extra and Roadchef by contractors P.J. Carey of Wembley. The original plan began in 1995 and was credited to Extra and Texaco; it was approved in 1999 and, after several delays, opened in 2001. Roadchef operated the main building while Swayfields ran the petrol stations.
Both sites opened with parking capacity for 150 cars, 14 HGVs, 10 coaches and a dedicated area for caravans. The northbound side included a 232-seat onRoute restaurant, a 36-seat Costa coffee shop, Wimpy fast food unit and a reStore shop whilst the southbound side, which was considerably larger, included a 333-seat onRoute restaurant, a 52-seat Costa coffee shop, Dr Beak's Chicken and Wimpy fast food units and Fone Bitz and reStore shops. A 40 bed Travel Inn was also built on the southbound side. Both sides also included a Texaco filling station, operated by Swayfields.
On 19 November 2008 Roadchef sold their part to Moto for £9.5 million as they wanted to channel more money into their existing sites, and until now Moto didn't have a service station in this area. Keen spotters will identify much evidence of Roadchef corporate branding, especially in the car park.
Space was left for a motel to be built on the northbound side, but this was never used. The southbound motel opened with the services.
Recent Changes
The West Cornwall Pasty Company outlet here is one of the two first internal West Cornwall Pasty Company outlets at a Moto site.
The northbound restaurant was replaced with an M&S Simply Food store, with southbound later following.
In 2019, the northbound Costa store was relocated to a kiosk in the seating area to make way for the Greggs store. In 2020, the southbound side followed by relocated to the seating area too however the former unit is currently unused.
Alternatives
| Previous: | Next: | |
| Fleet (23 miles) | Services on the M3 | none on M3 Rownhams (M27 west, 13 miles) Farlington (A27, 33 miles) |
| none nearby | Moto services | none |
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