Redhill Swimming Baths And Town
A Memory of Redhill.
Does anyone remember the old swimming baths at Redhill? I started swimming there in the 1970s when it was still a Victorian building. The steps in the pool were of stone and the changing rooms were around the poolsides with wooden doors. You could pay to have a slipper bath! There was a young lady who gave you a box to put your clothes in and you had to remember the number on it to get it back after your swim. Sometimes we saw cockroaches scuttling on the floor. I joined the swimming club 'The Marlins' and trained every Thursday with Mrs Ditzel. She seemed rather fierce at the time but she was just trying to get the best out of us.
I also remember certain little shops along Station Road, a lovely old-fashioned chemist and a children's clothes shop called Hancock and Bean. There was a nice boutique near there which sold Mary Quant clothes which my mother used to love.
I was really sad when Redhill changed so much in the 1980s. It seemed to lose so much character. Has anyone else got any information on the old baths?
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I also remember how Redhill was architecturally pleasing at that time, and how I watched incredulously as the Market Hall was demolished, and the monstrosity that now stands on the site erected. What were they thinking?
A funny story: my mother would never let us buy fish and chips from the shop behind the Market Hall because it was next door to the public toilets! When it moved to Raffle's Bridge she still refused to let us go there, as though the stain of being next to a public convenience was transported along with the deep fat fryers!!