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Forty years ago this month, British cinema-going changed for ever with the opening of The Point in Milton Keynes, the UK’s first US-style multiplex. Looming over Midsummer Boulevard, the Point’s mirrored glass ziggurat and red pyramidal frame audaciously synthesised Maya and Egyptian motifs in a futuristic, hi-tech temple of pleasure. As well as 10 screens (Back to the Future, The Goonies, and My Beautiful Laundrette opened proceedings), there were bars, restaurants, nightclub and even cup holders on seats, an unimaginable novelty for the time.
Today, with its cinemas long closed, this now-languishing 1980s superstar is under threat of demolition, caught in a row between local campaigners, politicians and heritage groups trying to preserve it, and developers seeking to demolish it for a much-criticised new housing scheme.
“The Point is the most historically important cinema built in Britain since the golden age of the 1930s and its pyramid is the indisputable landmark of Milton Keynes”, says Oli Marshall, campaigns director at the Twentieth Century Society, which aims to preserve notable British buildings. “Remarkably, only one postwar cinema in Britain is currently listed (the 1960s Curzon in London’s Mayfair). It’s high time we changed that.”
By the mid-1980s British cinema-going was at a historic low ebb, with the number of cinemas having shrunk from about 4,800 at the start of the second world war to 660 in 1984. As the largest and most ambitious of the postwar new towns, Milton Keynes was seen as the ideal location for a bold new experiment by the US AMC cinema chain. Commissioned to create a showstopper, architects BDP and Neil Tibbalds went gangbusters with a building that was an exuberant mashup of funfair and temple.
Cinemas had hitherto skulked in high streets, often seedy and rotting. The Point brought them into the open, reconcieved as a thrilling new kind of entertainment experience. As a shot of commercial and architectural adrenaline, it revived British cinema-going, welcoming more than a million visitors in its first year, and impelling the subsequent proliferation of multiplexes. By 1991, there were 41 across the country, containing a quarter of all the UK’s cinema screens.
Yet from its intoxicating heyday, the Point is now on the rocks, the victim of changing fashions, consumer expectations and rapacious rivals. Decline began to set in around 2000, after the arrival in Milton Keynes of the huge Xscape leisure complex boasting a 16-screen cinema, indoor ski slope, shops, restaurants and a casino. The Point was effectively “out-Pointed” and since then, it struggled with changes of owners and operators. Its cinemas closed for the final time in February 2015.
In the interim, the building provided a home for local youth charities, while grassroots campaigners launched petitions and crowdfunders in an attempt to save it, emphasising its community value, singular design and landmark status. Bingo provided a temporary commercial salvation, but the Covid pandemic proved insurmountable and in 2020 The Point closed for good.
Now it has been acquired by Galliard Homes, which plans to demolish it and build new housing on the site, but an original £150m proposal was unanimously rejected by Milton Keynes city councillors in July 2024. Galliard appealed and has since won approval to develop a 21-storey apartment block containing 487 flats.
Reacting to the news, Labour leader of the council, Peter Marland, said the decision showed a “complete disregard for the unique heritage of the city” and that the proposed scheme was “terrible in almost every single way”, citing its lack of affordable homes, “bad design” and “identikit flats”. He added: “The Point is just as important for the people of Milton Keynes as the Liver Building is to the people of Liverpool or St Paul’s is to Londoners. Just because it’s newer doesn’t mean it’s any less important.”
Milton Keynes council is now seeking legal advice on challenging the planning appeal, while Historic England is assessing whether The Point should be listed, which would provide it a measure of protection. Currently, it is subject to a Certificate of Immunity, which prevents it from being listed, but this expires next year.
Emily Darlington, MP for Milton Keynes Central said: “Though the site has fallen derelict in recent years, the complete demolition of The Point would be a considerable loss to our local heritage assets. It holds a special place in our new town story, and in the memories of those who moved to Milton Keynes in the early years.”
If it does survive, it’s hard to see what use might be found for it, but as Marty McFly said 40 years ago “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”
