Kemp & Tasker

Addington Road Health Centre, Addington Road in West Wickham, built by Kemp & Tasker

Leslie H. Kemp and Frederick E. Tasker were English architects who practiced in the 1930s as Kemp & Tasker.

They are best known for their cinemas, although they are responsible for a number of notable buildings in South London and Kent for a Messrs Morrell Bros. Builders ^[1] of 60 High Street, Bromley, Kent. These include:

• Motor Showrooms, Garage and Restaurant, 38 - 40 Croydon Road, Coney Hall, Hayes, Kent
• Dorchester Court flats, Herne Hill, London
• 5 Dorchester Drive, Herne Hill, London
• Crownleigh Court, Crownstone Road, Brixton, London
• Tudor Stacks, Dorchester Drive, Herne Hill, London (demolished)

In 1934 a Kemp and Tasker house design won the Daily Mail's Ideal House Competition and was erected temporarily at Olympia in the 'Village of Tomorrow' ^[2] at Ideal Home Show the following year. ^[3] Morrell's glossy brochure ^[4] advertised that it could be built to order anywhere and three known examples exist:

• 77 Addington Road, West Wickham (much modified as a health centre, but nonetheless Grade II listed in 2021) ^{[a] [3]}
• 10 Dorchester Drive, Herne Hill, London ^{[b] [3]} It was granted grade II listed building protection in 2022. ^{[5] [6]}
• Stanstead, Mount Merrion, Dublin, Ireland (1936) ^{[c] [7]}

Cinemas

The Odeon, St Albans (re-opened as the Odyssey, 2015)

Towers Cinema Hornchurch (demolished 2017)

• 1932 Regent Cinema, Station Square, Paignton, Devon (demolished)
• 1933 Odeon Cinema, Whalebone Lane, Chadwell Heath, Essex (demolished)
• 1934 Ritz Cinema, Gordon Street, Luton
• 1935 Embassy Cinema, Braintree, Essex
• 1936 Regent Cinema, Hatfield, Hertfordshire ^[8]
• Towers Cinema (Odeon from 1946), Hornchurch, Essex (demolished) ^[9]
• 1935 Savoy Cinema, Petersfield, Hants.
• 1936 Ritz Cinema, Belfast, Northern Ireland ^[10]
• 1940 Regal Cinema (ABC from 1961), Camberwell (closed 1973)
• Commodor Cinema, High Street, Orpington, Kent (demolished)
• Odeon Cinema, Greenwich, London (demolished)
• Odeon Cinema, Romford, Essex
• Odeon Cinema, St. Albans, Hertfordshire (re-opened as the Odyssey, 2015) ^[11]
• Odeon Cinema, Stepney, London
• Rex Cinema, Wood Green, London

Notes

1. 77 Addington Road coordinates: 51°22′12″N0°00′09″W / 51.369951°N 0.002496°W / 51.369951; -0.002496 (77 Addington Road)
2. 10 Dorchester Drive coordinates: 51°27′31″N0°05′52″W / 51.458577°N 0.097780°W / 51.458577; -0.097780 (10 Dorchester Drive)
3. Stanstead coordinates: 53°17′51″N6°12′42″W / 53.297489°N 6.211570°W / 53.297489; -6.211570 (Stanstead)

References

1. Hayes and Coney Hall walk notes, The Twentieth Century Society, 2007
2. The Ideal Home Through the 20th Century, Deborah S Ryan, 1997
3. Marsh, Laurence (Winter 2021). "When is a house unique?". Herne Hill (152). Herne Hill Society.
4. Sales Brochure, held by Local Studies Library, Bromley, Kent
5. "10 Dorchester Drive and boundary walls, non Civil Parish - 1480933 | Historic England".
6. "Immaculate Art Deco home in South London gets preservation order".
7. Free State Architecture, Paul Larmour, Gandon Editions, 2009
8. Eyles, Allen; Skone, Keith (2002). Cinemas of Hertfordshire. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 46. ISBN   9780954218904 . Retrieved 22 March 2018.
9. Cherry, Bridget; O'Brien, Charles; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2005). The Buildings of England: London. Vol. 5. East. London, New Haven, [Conn.]: Yale University Press. p. 178. ISBN   9780300107012 . Retrieved 12 October 2016.
10. Fading Lights, Silver Screens, A History of Belfast Cinemas, Michael Open, p 71
11. "Restored art-deco cinema reopens". BBC News. 13 December 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2018.