The Planet Reigate Podcast
69a: *Extra Episode - The (Full) Story Of Bancroft Road, Reigate
03 Jan 2025
Full Episode
This is the Planet Reigate podcast. And welcome to a very special edition of our show. How many times have you driven into Reigate, either from Red Hill or from down the hill, and found yourself in the town's one-way system? Or indeed, taking that route as a pedestrian?
And 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 in that dog-leg bend, the Everyman Cinema on the right, and going up to Bell Street. Have you ever looked at the building on the left-hand side, Hall 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 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.
Well, 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 the majestic cinema. The rise and fall of both businesses and the people behind them.
and how the road they're 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.
This 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 Poole House. So, I invite you to listen to The Story of Bancroft Road Rygate on the Planet Rygate podcast. This is the Planet Rygate podcast with Peter Stewart.
It's a breezy afternoon, as you might be able to hear on the microphone, and I'm probably at one of the highest points in Reigate Town Centre. Where am I? I'm at the top of the town's only multi-storey car park. Why? Well... I want to tell you about Harry and Emmy Bancroft and the story of Reigate's open-air swimming pool and the story of one of Reigate's cinemas as well. They're all intertwined.
And why have I come up here? Well, because I'm now looking over Bancroft Road. And Bancroft Road wasn't always here. I mean, no, local roads were always here, of course, but Bancroft is a relatively new addition to Reigate, coming long after Bell Street and the High Street and Church Street, which it turns off from.
And it owes itself and its name to Harry Bancroft and his wife, Emmy, a one-time couple. Music Hall Double Act, who fell in love and became local entrepreneurs, creating not only the road, but also an outdoor swimming pool and a cinema as well. Yeah, Bancroft Road used to have the majestic Lido. It's where Paul House is now, opposite the cinema. And the cinema is where the cinema used to be.
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