Bath Sports and Leisure Centre

Bath Sports and Leisure Centre is a 1972 public building on Bath Recreation Ground whose concrete-and-stone practicality becomes central to the investigation of Bert’s crimes. First used as the place where Julie Hargreaves goes to interview him, it later becomes the focus of an emergency search when she fails to report in. The centre’s car park, interior rooms, fire escape and rooftop rugby stand shape the search and chase; at their end, Diamond discovers that Julie has arrested Bert herself.

Setting and Physical Character

Built from concrete and reconstituted stone, the centre dates to 1972 and is described as an example of packing-case architecture: more functional than decorative. By day it sits unobtrusively on the Recreation Ground, away from Bath’s grander buildings. In the October evening light, however, its appearance changes; artificial illumination makes it a garish yellow monolith. The contrast gives the building a distinct place in the action: ordinary and unassuming in its daytime setting, conspicuous once the police gather outside after dark.

Its interior is not a single open hall but a varied public complex. The searchers move through corridors and offices, viewing galleries, table-tennis rooms, weight-training and aerobics spaces. The centre also contains changing rooms, saunas, storerooms and cupboards, all identified as places that require particular attention during the search. Its bar and restaurant, the Winning Post, bring another complication: officers encounter a group of angry drinkers there, and Diamond has to stop the confrontation from diverting them from the urgent task.

From Interview Site to Search Ground

The centre first enters the inquiry through the effort to check Bert’s movements. After distributing officers to interview people connected with the case, Diamond sends a detective to the boatyard and Julie to the centre to speak with Bert, Shirley-Ann Miller’s partner. Julie reports that she is at the Sports Centre to interview him. In the same conversation, she explains that she had taken Marlowe for a walk around the edge of the car park at Manvers Street Police Station and then given the dog another opportunity to go out at the centre. The location is thus part of the investigation before it becomes an emergency scene.

Later, the centre’s car park provides the first concrete reason for alarm. At 5:25 p.m., officers find Julie’s car at the far end, with Marlowe in the back seat barking and yelping. Julie is missing, and the car’s presence makes it difficult to accept that she has simply left. By 5:45, more than forty officers have mustered in the floodlit area outside the main entrance off North Parade. Diamond tells them that Julie may be held by Bert, a centre employee suspected of violent crimes, and warns them to treat him with extreme caution.

The Emergency Search

Diamond’s plan uses the centre’s ordinary public operations as part of the search. He arranges for the fire alarm to be sounded, with uniformed officers directing users towards the main doors and watching for Bert among those leaving. If that does not locate him, officers are to search the building systematically, beginning on the ground floor and moving upwards, with senior centre staff helping. The emphasis on enclosed spaces reflects the possibility that Julie is being held somewhere out of public view.

The search reaches beyond the main rooms into the upper-level maze of offices and activity spaces. Officers also have to contend with the Winning Post’s patrons, whose angry exchanges threaten to consume attention. Diamond uses the radio to end the disturbance and keep the operation focused. Soon after 6:30 p.m., the search party reports that every part of the building has been checked. Yet Julie has not been found. Diamond insists to Arnold Musgrave that her car remains outside and that she would not have left Marlowe in it for so long; he concludes that she must be hurt or held against her will. Musgrave raises the possibility of searching the car park beneath the building, and Diamond replies that it has already been checked.

Rooftop Chase and Reversal

The search eventually leads to the roof, where two figures lie low near a satellite dish. From Diamond’s approach, the scene appears to demand a careful rescue: he fears Bert could kill Julie if he has her by the throat, and advances cautiously before beckoning the others forward. Julie then calls for him to hurry because she has already made the arrest and only needs someone to take Bert away. When Diamond stands up, the apparent rescue becomes a reversal. Julie has Bert secured in an armlock, with her leg braced to keep him immobile, and constables move in to handcuff him.

The route to that arrest runs through the building itself. Julie later explains that Bert became suspicious when she pressed him about computer records and duplicate order forms. He left the interview room saying he needed to find the forms; in the corridor, he suddenly ran, bolted up a fire escape and continued across the roof. Julie followed, and the pursuit ended at the rugby club stand, where she tackled him. The centre’s functional layout—its offices, escape route and rooftop spaces—therefore supplies the physical sequence through which an interview becomes a chase and a suspected crime becomes an arrest. It also frames Diamond’s misjudgment: he approaches expecting to find Julie in danger, but the final image is of her controlling the suspect herself.