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 Hayes and Coney Hall walk notes, The Twentieth Century Society, 2007 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' The Ideal Home Through the 20th Century, Deborah S Ryan, 1997 at Ideal Home Show the following year. Morrell's glossy brochureSales Brochure, held by Local Studies Library, Bromley, Kent 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) 10 Dorchester Drive, Herne Hill, London It was granted grade II listed building protection in 2022. Stanstead, Mount Merrion, Dublin, Ireland (1936)Free State Architecture, Paul Larmour, Gandon Editions, 2009
Cinemas
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 Towers Cinema (Odeon from 1946), Hornchurch, Essex (demolished) 1935 Savoy Cinema, Petersfield, Hants. 1936 Ritz Cinema, Belfast, Northern IrelandFading Lights, Silver Screens, A History of Belfast Cinemas, Michael Open, p 71 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) Odeon Cinema, Stepney, London Rex Cinema, Wood Green, London
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