Russell Diplock & Associates

Russell Diplock & Associates was a British firm of architects, founded by Philip Russell Diplock.

Arlington House, Margate
The Kingswest Centre, Brighton (now the Odeon Kingswest Cinema)

They designed a three-storey office block for Amalgamated Dental Prosthetic Products in 1957 on an industrial estate between Addlestone and Weybridge in Surrey.[1] In 1961, the Russell Diplock-designed Ariel Hotel was built at what is now London Heathrow Airport, "Britain’s first significant airport hotel".[2]

They designed the 18-storey modernist Arlington House, Margate, which was built in 1964 by the contractors Bernard Sunley & Sons.[3]

From 1959 they were engaged in major projects in Brighton for Brighton Borough Council. In that year they were chosen as designers for the Churchill Square shopping centre complex, fulfilling a redevelopment plan which had been debated since 1935. The complex consisted of an open shopping mall in the Brutalist style, a multi-storey car park, office blocks and an 18-storey block of flats called Chartwell Court; three similar-sized tower blocks had originally been planned. Churchill Square covered 11 acres (4.5 ha) between Western Road and the seafront, a prime central location previously occupied by terraced houses. It was completely redeveloped by another firm of architects in 1995–98.[4] Next, as part of the same redevelopment scheme, the firm was responsible for the "intrusively aggressive" Kingswest Centre, built in 1965 and converted from a conference centre into a cinema in 1973. The bronzed aluminium roof has a distinctive jagged outline.[5] Also in the Brutalist style, and making extensive use of unrelieved concrete, was the adjacent Brighton Centre—a new conference centre and performance venue. Russell Diplock & Associates designed this between 1974 and 1977. It was derided as "unlovely ... grim [and] monolithic" in the Pevsner Architectural Guides.[5]

References
  1. Nairn & Pevsner 1971, p. 91.
  2. "Building of the month: Ariel Hotel, London Airport". c20society. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  3. "The Building". Arlingtonmargate. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  4. Antram & Pevsner 2013, p. 215.
  5. Antram & Pevsner 2013, p. 219.

Bibliography
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