ABSTRACT
In February 2015 Britain’s first multiplex, The Point in Milton Keynes, which had opened in November 1985, closed its doors for good. This landmark building will be demolished to make way for a shopping centre, its application to English Heritage for listing having been rejected in 2013. The Point had been a joint venture with Bass Leisure and American Multi-Cinema (AMC) and the first US-owned multiplex in a foreign country, though by the time it closed it was part of the Odeon chain. When construction began in August 1984 it was to be a “glittering landmark for a 21st century entertainment centre in Central Milton Keynes” (MKDC 1983). The building, a 70-foot structure that resembled a Mesopotamian Ziggurat, contained bars, restaurants, a bingo hall, discotheque and social club, with an adjoining windowless silver block at the rear housing the ten-screen cinema (for a history of The Point see Hanson 2013a).
