What Reigate is built from, and what that does to the glass
Curved timber bays on the 1930s semis around Woodhatch, South Park and Meadvale need their shaped panes templated on site, and that is a fair share of what we do as glaziers in Reigate. JM Glass & Glazing run the workshop at 24 Waddon Close in Waddon, Croydon CR0 4JT, twelve miles north over the M25, cutting sash glass, making up replacement sealed units and fitting shopfront panes across RH2.
Reigate is a medieval market town and the glass in it covers about three hundred years. The High Street, West Street and Bell Street are Georgian and early-Victorian frontages with timber box sash windows sitting over traditional shopfronts. Go up Reigate Hill, or out along Chart Lane, Somers Road and Wray Common, and you are into big Victorian and Edwardian detached villas: tall sashes, deep bays, and a lot of original stained and leaded glass still in the door lights and stair windows.
South of the centre the pattern changes completely. Woodhatch, South Park, Meadvale and St John's are mostly 1930s semis and detached family houses with curved timber bays and leaded top-lights, and nearly all of them had sealed units fitted at some point since. Doversgreen and Sandcross are post-war and modern estate housing, where it is straightforward full-frame replacement and standard double glazed units.
Those three Reigates go wrong in three different ways. It is worth knowing which one you live in before you ring anybody.
- Box sashes in the town centre and on the hill. Thin, often original glass in boxes set into frontages that are listed or inside the conservation area. Slim double-glazed units can go into a sash, but the sightlines and the beading are what give it away, so it has to be got right.
- Victorian and Edwardian coloured and leaded glass. Cracked quarries and tired lead in front door panels and stair windows on the Chart Lane and Somers Road villas. We take a rubbing, match the glass and re-lead the panel rather than lose the original.
- Curved 1930s bays at Woodhatch, South Park and Meadvale. The curved and shaped panes are the awkward part. They get templated on site, not measured off a drawing, and they are the reason a bay job takes two visits.
- Misted double glazing across the whole southern half of the town. Sealed units fitted in the 1990s are failing in numbers now. Swapping the unit costs a fraction of a new window and the frame usually has years left in it.
- Modern estate windows at Doversgreen and Sandcross. Beading, hinges, handles and the odd cracked pane. Most of it is a window repair rather than a replacement, and we will say so.
Glass replacement and window repairs in Reigate
Most of our RH2 work is glass rather than frames. Broken and cracked panes, misted double glazing, toughened and laminated glass replacement, and glass cut to size for greenhouses, cabinets, shelves and table tops. Alongside that we make and fit the larger items: glass balustrades, shower enclosures, splashbacks and made-to-measure mirrors.
On the bigger detached houses up towards Colley Hill and the Surrey Hills, roof lanterns, orangeries and structural glazing come up far more often than they do near Croydon. That suits us. Edge Building Products named JM Glass their Installation of the Month for July 2025 for a roof light refurbishment, 44 shaped double-glazed units into Edge 50mm capped aluminium glazing bars. Shaped and roof glazing is exactly the kind of job worth a run down the A23 for.
Reigate town centre is unusually independent for Surrey. The High Street, West Street, Bell Street and Church Street carry boutiques, cafes, restaurants and antiques and craft shops rather than a wall of chains, and there is a heavy professional-services presence: solicitors, accountants, estate agents and financial firms around the centre and along London Road. Add the parades at Woodhatch and Meadvale and the business space along the A25 and the M25 junction 8 corridor, and there is a lot of commercial glass in a small town.
Shopfront glass and overnight boarding
For shops and offices we do shopfront glass replacement in toughened and laminated glass, door glass, and one-off glass panels where a frontage is not a standard size, which, on a Georgian High Street, it rarely is. If a window goes in overnight we can board it and come back with the glass once it is made. Manifestation and frosting for office partitions is straightforward work we do a lot of.
The Reigate conservation areas, and what they mean for your windows
Reigate has several. The town centre conservation area takes in the High Street, West Street and Bell Street, and there are separate designations covering Wray Common, Chart Lane, Somers Road and St John's. On a listed frontage you will need listed building consent before anything changes. In a conservation area it is worth asking Reigate and Banstead Borough Council whether an Article 4 direction applies to your road, because if it does, like-for-like replacement stops being a matter of taste and becomes a condition.
Consent is yours to get rather than ours, but we will tell you what we think a job needs before you spend money on it, and we can make units to whatever the conservation officer will accept: slim units, correct putty lines, the right glass in a leaded panel.
How we get to Reigate, and when we are worth the trip
We are at 24 Waddon Close in Croydon, roughly twelve miles north of Reigate. The run down is the A23 through Purley and Coulsdon to Hooley, then the M25 from junction 7 round to junction 8 and down Reigate Hill; or straight on through Merstham to Redhill and in on the A25. Either way it is the better part of forty minutes, and the M25 decides how the day goes.
So the honest version. Reigate has its own glaziers, including one on the High Street, and for a single cracked pane in a back door you are better off ringing someone in the town. Where we earn the journey is the larger work: a full set of sashes on a Victorian villa, a run of failed units across a 1930s semi, a staircase or balcony balustrade, a roof lantern on a rear extension, a shopfront done properly. We would rather tell you that now than turn up, look at a ten-minute job and charge you for the mileage.
We do take emergency call-outs in RH2 and we aim to make a property safe the same day where we can. What we will not do is promise you a time from twelve miles and a motorway away. Ring us, tell us what has happened, and we will say straight out whether we are the quickest option for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
We really cover it, but we are straight about the distance. Our workshop is in Waddon, Croydon, about twelve miles north of Reigate over the M25. We take RH2 work where the job justifies the journey: full sets of sashes, runs of misted units, balustrades, roof lanterns and shopfronts. For one small pane, a Reigate glazier will beat us on time and cost.
Usually the better part of forty minutes. We run down the A23 through Purley and Coulsdon to Hooley, then the M25 from junction 7 to junction 8 and down Reigate Hill, or carry on through Merstham to Redhill and come in on the A25. The M25 is the variable. We would rather quote you a realistic morning or afternoon than a time we cannot keep.
Yes, and slim double-glazed units can go into a box sash without ruining it. What matters is the sightline, the beading and the putty line. If your frontage is listed you will need listed building consent, and on some roads inside the conservation area an Article 4 direction may apply, so check with Reigate and Banstead Borough Council first. We will make the glass to whatever is agreed.
Almost certainly not. Misting means the seal on the double glazed unit has failed, not the frame. On the 1930s bays around Woodhatch, South Park and Meadvale the timber is often still sound, so we template the curved and shaped panes on site and fit new units into the existing frame. It costs a fraction of a full replacement window.
Yes. We cut float, toughened, laminated, mirror and patterned glass to size for greenhouses, cabinets, shelves, table tops and picture frames. Because Reigate is a drive rather than a doorstep, we normally combine a cutting job with a fitting job in the same area, or bring it down with other RH2 work. Give us the sizes and we will tell you when we can be there.
We take emergency call-outs in RH2 and we aim to make a property safe the same day where we can, but we will not promise you a response time from twelve miles and a motorway away. Ring us with what has happened. If someone closer will get there faster, we will say so, and we can still make and fit the replacement glass afterwards.
We cut and fit the lot: float, toughened, laminated, obscure, mirror and patterned. Toughened goes into low panes, shower screens and balustrades, and laminated into the Georgian shopfronts on West Street and Bell Street where security matters. Coloured and patterned glass we match by taking a rubbing from the original panel on the Chart Lane and Somers Road villas. Curved panes for a Woodhatch bay are templated on site before anything is cut.
Glass only. In most Reigate houses the frame is sound and it is the sealed unit that has gone (around Woodhatch, South Park and Meadvale the 1990s units are giving up one after another), so we change the glass and leave the frame alone. That is quicker, and it costs far less. If the timber box on a Reigate Hill sash has genuinely rotted, that is a job for a replacement-window installer, and we are not one.