With its undulating roof and glass walls, Britain's newest motorway service station resembles nothing quite so much as an airport departure lounge. Cob-ham, on the M25 south-west of London, has a food court with offerings ranging from McDonald's and Starbucks to Papa John's Pizza and El Mexicana. It also has a lakeside terrace and a business lounge-one of three now operated by Regus on the country's motorways. Apart from a cluster of fruit machines, there is scarcely a reminder of the grimy, boxy services so familiar to, and disliked by, British drivers. Motorway service stations, which exist in other European countries but not in America, were once rather glamorous. Britain's first opened at Watford Gap in November 1959, on the same day as the mi. The nation thrilled to the opportunities offered by its burgeoning motorway network and the facilities at its side.
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