Our Love-Hate Affair with Britain's Biggest Car Park ; On the Day of Climate Change Warnings, One Writer Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of That Great Monument to the Car the M25 and Meets the People Connected by This 117-Mile Circle

Evening Standard - London › October 30, 2006

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Summary

Our love-hate affair with EVEN its fans could not accuse South Mimms service station, near Potters Bar, of teeming with history and grandeur. But unknown to the travellers struggling to choose between Burger King, KFC and Coffee Primo last night, South Mimms marks the birthplace, exactly 20 years ago yesterday, of a national institution.

On a nearby stretch of tarmac, on the morning of 29 October 1986, the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, cut a ribbon, lifted a specially-lightened traffic cone and officially declared open the final stretch of the M25, then the world's longest city bypass.

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Extract

Our Love-Hate Affair with Britain's Biggest Car Park ; On the Day of Climate Change Warnings, One Writer Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of That Great Monument to the Car the M25 and Meets the People Connected by This 117-Mile Circle

It was, and remains, a very visible milestone in our love affair with the car - a romance we are all now being urged to question with the publication of today's Stern report on climate change and a leaked memo from Environment Secretary David Miliband proposing raising the cost of motoring.

But back in 1986, when our passion was undiminished by other concerns, the motorway started as it meant to go on.

At 11am, the road opened to traffic.

At ...

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