The Story Of Bancroft Road Reigate

How many times have you driven into Reigate either from Redhill, or from down the Hill, and found yourself in the town’s one-way system, taking that awkward sharp left-hand turn off Church Street, past the town’s only multi-storey car park on the right-hand side, the library tucked away at the dog-leg bend, the Everyman cinema on the right and up to Bell Street..?

Have you ever looked at the building on the left-hand side, Pool House, and wondered how it got its name?

Maybe you knew that it was built on the site of the town’s swimming pool, that opposite it, the cinema sits on the site of another cinema, so grand it was called The Majestic, and that that building was almost side-to-side with the town’s first cinema, The Hippodrome.

This special episode of The Planet Reigate Podcast brings together features from Christmas and New Year shows of 2024 and 2025, all in one place. Together, hear the story of Reigate’s Bancroft Road.

• The love story at the heart of the development of both the Majestic Pool and Majestic Cinema.
• The rise and fall of both businesses and the people behind them
• How the road they were on got its name – and it’s not named after who you might think.

We discover the grave of the couple who made both ventures possible, and how their love endured, and go behind the scenes or rather underground, into what is left of the pool today.

The episode is made possible by the research of Sean Hawkins and by kind permission of Spencer Copping of WS Planning and Architecture, which is based in Pool House.

I invite you to listen to The Story Of Bancroft Road Reigate… on The Planet Reigate Podcast.

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