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.^[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: 51.369951°N 0.002496°W / 51.369951; -0.002496 (77 Addington Road)
2. 10 Dorchester Drive coordinates: 51.458577°N 0.097780°W / 51.458577; -0.097780 (10 Dorchester Drive)
3. Stanstead coordinates: 53.297489°N 6.211570°W / 53.297489; -6.211570 (Stanstead)