Joseph Emberton Architect
Emberton Court, Finsbury Estate, Central London
Built 1958, Pictured in 2013
Bronze Plaque of Joe Emberton at Emberton Court
Dame Isobel Cripps mentioned here was the widow of Stafford Cripps.
Context
Present day students may note that this project was rather different from today.
Present day students may note that this project was rather different from today.
a) The local authority acquired land and commissioned an architect to build homes for key works/low income families in this central London location. Done quickly, as in a post war emergency.
b) The architect - Emberton's firm after his death - led the project and got it built.
c) A plaque was put up for the architect in appreciation.
How times have changed!
Emberton and High-Rise
Once I found a 1930s newspaper cutting from a Birmingham paper on the floor of my garden shed. I can't remember where it came from or where I put it. It reported a talk Mr Emberton the architect had given in the city about how traffic congestion was going to be the problem of the future and how we would live in high rise towers.
Once I found a 1930s newspaper cutting from a Birmingham paper on the floor of my garden shed. I can't remember where it came from or where I put it. It reported a talk Mr Emberton the architect had given in the city about how traffic congestion was going to be the problem of the future and how we would live in high rise towers.
Incidentally, I think his slides for these talks are in the collection of Brighton University, as donated by his late daughter Jocelyn. They are quite primitive looking slide frames by modern standards, as if he was using a magic lantern or something. Included were pictures of planes and ocean liners of the day, a bit like the way le Corbusier woud reference these in the cause of promoting functionalism. Instead of being an academic Joseph frquently went out and directly addressed the public in this way about the future.
In 1980 when I was a student I met an architect contemporary of Joe's from the 1930s, Jane Drew. She said he was always a staunch proponent of high rise housing, even back then. She also said he was dead right and would be proved right eventually........ and I remember people back in Audley discussing his support for high rise.
The only low-income housing scheme I know of his before the war was a walk-up type of block in the East End. But in the Fifties he also designed high rise blocks near Old Street, which I visited a while ago and noted how the original kitchen cupboards were as thoughfully planned as the cabinets in his shops.