M1 celebrates 50th birthday

Mon Nov 2 2009 16:02:06

The M1 motorway is celebrating its 50th birthday.

The anniversary has been marked with the unveiling of a plaque at Watford Gap, the motorway's most famous service station and the location of the symbolic dividing sign where north apparently meets south.

It was on November 2, 1959 that the then Transport Minister Ernest Marples opened the first section of the M1.

That first 62-mile stretch ran from the existing junction 5 near Watford in Hertfordshire to junction 18 near Rugby in the West Midlands.

At the time of the M1 opening, there were fewer than 5 million licensed cars on UK roads compared with more than 28 million now.

The M1 proved popular immediately, drastically reducing journey times between London and Birmingham. Within a few years, northern and southern extensions were added to the road, which now stretches 193 miles from Brent Cross in north west London to Garforth near Leeds.

Roads minister Chris Mole said: "I am delighted to mark the 50th birthday of the M1 - a motorway with an iconic past which will soon benefit from the latest in motorway modernisation thanks to Government investment of up to £6 billion."

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