Redhill is a Victorian railway town, and the windows still say so
Twelve miles down the A23 from our Croydon workshop at 24 Waddon Close in Waddon, CR0 4JT, JM Glass & Glazing work as glaziers in Redhill and across RH1. Most of it is glass going back into frames that are staying put: blown sealed units in the interwar bays at Earlswood and South Earlswood, single-glazed sash panes bedded and puttied on Redstone Hill, and toughened shop front glass in the town centre.
The station opened on 12 July 1841 and the town, originally Warwick Town, grew outwards from the junction. That is why the streets nearest the centre are Victorian: terraces and semis with sliding sash windows, at their grandest on Redstone Hill, along Linkfield Street and around Redhill Common. Plenty of those sashes are still single-glazed and still sitting in their original boxes. A cracked pane there wants cutting, bedding and puttying to match what is already in the frame, not a modern unit forced into a Victorian sightline.
Move out from that first ring and the date changes. Earlswood and South Earlswood are mostly interwar semi-detached, and a lot of them still have their original timber bay windows, with leaded lights in the top lights and sealed units from a 1990s upgrade that have since blown. Misted double glazing in a Redhill bay is the most common call we get out of RH1. Whitebushes and Salfords are different again: post-war and 1960s to 80s estate housing with bigger, plainer panes, early uPVC and aluminium frames, and toughened glass in the back doors.
Merstham is really two glazing towns sitting next to each other. There is the old village core around Quality Street, with the Merstham and Rockshaw conservation areas and period glass that has to be matched properly. Ten minutes away is the big 1950s London County Council out-county estate, where the windows are standard, repeatable and usually a straight swap. Same postcode, two completely different quotes.
What we get called out for in RH1
- Sealed unit replacement. Blown, misted double glazing in the interwar bays at Earlswood, Whitebushes and Salfords. We measure the failed unit, have it made, and come back to fit it.
- Glass replacement in sashes and casements, in the Victorian terraces off Linkfield Street and Redstone Hill, including obscure glass for bathrooms and toughened glass where a pane sits low.
- Window repairs. Dropped and sticking sashes, failed hinges and handles, rotten beading on timber frames that have had thirty winters up on the Common.
- Glass cut to size. Shelves, cabinet fronts, table tops, greenhouse and shed panes, cut at Croydon and brought down to Redhill.
- Made-to-measure mirrors and splashbacks, measured on site in RH1, made to the millimetre and fitted on the second visit.
We take emergency glazier work in Redhill, and it is only fair to say how that works from twelve miles away. We are not going to be the first van at a broken shop window in RH1 at two in the morning. What we can do is get a property boarded and safe, often the same day, then come back with the right glass cut and ready to fit. If you need someone inside the hour, ring a Redhill firm. We would rather tell you that than keep you waiting.
Everything we fit in Redhill is measured on site by the man who is going to fit it. If something is not right afterwards, we come back and put it right. Jason has spent his working life in the glazing trade, the business is rated 5.0 on Google, and there are photographs of real jobs in the gallery.
Redhill has the deepest commercial pool of anywhere we cover. The pedestrianised High Street, the Belfry Shopping Centre and Warwick Quadrant give you conventional shop fronts and parades. The Rise at Marketfield Way, finished in 2023, added eleven glass-fronted retail and leisure units, a six-screen cinema, a bowling and diner venue and 153 build-to-rent flats above them. Then there is the office quarter around Station Road, London Road and the station itself, East Surrey Hospital over on the Earlswood side, and the trade and industrial estates at Holmethorpe, Trowers Way and Salfords.
Commercial glass in the town centre
Shop front glass replacement is the bulk of it. A toughened pane put through overnight, a laminated replacement for a unit that keeps getting hit, a cracked door panel that has to be swapped before the shutters go up. We also fit toughened glass doors and patch fittings, manifestation, which is the frosted band across a big pane so nobody walks into it, and frameless balustrades in the newer blocks. Office fit-outs around Station Road mean partition glass, and that is booked work rather than a call-out, which suits the drive from Croydon.
Conservation areas, and what they mean for your windows
Redhill has conservation areas at Redstone Hill and Linkfield Street as well as in the town itself, and Merstham has its village core and Rockshaw. Reigate and Banstead Borough Council is the planning authority. In practice: new glass into a frame that is staying is repair work and does not normally trouble planning. Changing the frames themselves, timber sash to uPVC say, is where you ask the council first, and in a conservation area they will care about the glazing bar pattern, the sightlines and how the sashes are divided up.
We are a glass and glazing firm rather than a replacement-window company, and most of our Redhill work is glass going into frames that stay put. Where whole windows are coming out, your builder or window installer handles the Building Regulations side and we supply and fit the glass to match.
Getting to Redhill from Waddon
It is about twelve miles from us: A23 out through Purley and Coulsdon, over the M25 at Merstham, down into Redhill. Thirty to forty minutes on a decent run, longer at school time on Brighton Road. We are not going to pretend Redhill is round the corner from Croydon, and there are long-established glass firms in RH1 and over in Reigate. We take Redhill on when the job is worth the trip: a run of sealed units across a whole house, a shop front, a staircase balustrade, a set of mirrors, a glass roof on a rear extension.
Edge Building Products named us their Installation of the Month for July 2025 for a roof light refurbishment, 44 shaped double-glazed units into 50mm capped aluminium glazing bars. That is the size of job that makes the A23 worth driving. For one small pane in Salfords you will be better off with somebody local, and we will say so on the phone rather than take up your morning.
Glazing services we provide in Redhill
Same trade in Redhill as in Croydon, only further down the A23. Most of it is glass going into frames that are staying exactly where they are.
Areas near Redhill
We also cover Coulsdon, Banstead, Caterham, Reigate, Oxted, Godstone. See every area on our areas covered page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Honestly, not as fast as a firm based in RH1. We are twelve miles up the A23 in Croydon, so allow thirty to forty minutes of driving before we even start. For a break-in or a smashed shop front we aim to board the property up and make it safe the same day where we can, then come back with the glass cut to size.
Ask Reigate and Banstead Borough Council before you commit to anything. Putting new glass into a frame that is staying is repair and does not normally involve planning. Swapping the frames does, and in a conservation area the council will look closely at glazing bars, sightlines and the sash pattern. We fit the glass; the frame application is between you and the council.
Yes, and it is the job we do most often in Redhill. The unit is made to the exact size of your bay, so we measure first, order it, then come back to fit. Curved and shaped panes in the older bays take a little longer to come through. The frame itself stays where it is.
There is no separate travel charge, but the distance is priced into the quote and we are straight about it. A single small pane in Salfords or Whitebushes is usually cheaper with a Redhill glazier, and we will tell you so. A full set of sealed units, a shop front or a balustrade is worth the run down.
Yes. Shelves, table tops, cabinet fronts, greenhouse and shed panes, plus mirror, obscure and toughened glass. We cut at Croydon and bring it down with us, so where the sizes are already confirmed it goes in on one visit. Send the sizes and the thickness over the phone or on WhatsApp and we will price it.
We do commercial glazing across Redhill town centre: shop front glass, toughened doors and patch fittings, manifestation and office partition glass. A broken pane in the Belfry or on the High Street is usually a board-up first and a made-to-size pane after. Retail and office fit-out work we schedule around your trading hours.
Toughened for the back doors on the Whitebushes and Salfords estates and for any pane sitting low enough to walk into, laminated where a shop front around the Belfry or the High Street keeps getting hit, obscure for bathrooms, plus mirror and patterned. For the single-glazed sashes on Redstone Hill and Linkfield Street we cut, bed and putty the new pane into the original box so it sits like the rest of the window. Merstham's Quality Street cottages get glass matched to the period.
We do the glass, not the frames. On the interwar bays at Earlswood and South Earlswood the timber is usually sound and only the blown sealed unit needs changing, which is quicker and far cheaper than a new window. It is the same on the early uPVC and aluminium at Whitebushes: often a hinge, a handle or one pane. Where a frame has actually rotted and the whole window is coming out, that is a replacement-window firm's job rather than ours, and they deal with the Building Regulations side.