Swimming Baths.

A Memory of Redhill.

The swimming baths were not Victorian they were opened in about 1935 and part of the new fire and police station. (The Reigate baths were in castle field road and these were old probably Edwardian).
I went there when they opened the Redhill baths when they were opened to show the public around. I was 8 yrs old so what impressed me were the boilers and the huge pile of coke to warm the water. I still have card that allowed me in for a penny halfpenny.
During the war I was in the P.A.M.S (police auxiliary messenger service) and my place was the special police post in a room in the basement of the swimming baths. One evening (I wasn't there) an elderly special constable
Wearing his heavy overcoat and with his gas mask slung over his shoulder left up the stairs to start his beat.At the top of the stairs he turned left down the passage and then he should have turned left again through the doors to leave the building.But he turned right around a partition and straight into the baths into five feet of water.the others in the basement heard the disturbance
And went up and fished the poor old chap out. The rest of their duty was spent fishing his false teeth out of five feet of water.