Kemp & Tasker

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

Addington Road Health Centre, Addington Road in West Wickham, built by 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. Morrell's glossy brochure [3] advertised that it could be built to order anywhere and three known examples exist:

  • 77 Addington Road, Hayes, Kent
  • 10 Dorchester Drive, Herne Hill, London
  • Stanstead, Mount Merrion, Dublin, Ireland (1936)[4]

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[5]
  • Towers Cinema (Odeon from 1946), Hornchurch, Essex (demolished)[6]
  • 1935 Savoy Cinema, Petersfield, Hants.
  • 1936 Ritz Cinema, Belfast, Northern Ireland[7]
  • 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)[8]
  • Odeon Cinema, Stepney, London
  • Rex Cinema, Wood Green, London

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. Sales Brochure, held by Local Studies Library, Bromley, Kent
  4. Free State Architecture, Paul Larmour, Gandon Editions, 2009
  5. Eyles, Allen; Skone, Keith (2002). Cinemas of Hertfordshire. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 46. ISBN 9780954218904. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  6. Cherry, Bridget; O'Brien, Charles; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2005). The Buildings of England: London. 5. East. London, New Haven, [Conn.]: Yale University Press. p. 178. ISBN 9780300107012. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  7. Fading Lights, Silver Screens, A History of Belfast Cinemas, Michael Open, p 71
  8. "Restored art-deco cinema reopens". BBC News. 13 December 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
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