The Growth Debate
Theo Chalmers Theo Chalmers is director of Verve Public Relations and chairman of Urban Eden. www.urbaneden.org www.vervepr.co.uk e: t.chalmers@vervepr.co.uk 01908 275271
Surely it is time to bid farewell to this eyesore R egular readers of this column will know that I have written about the former cinema, nightclub and bingo hall that is The Point many times in the past, most recently in March this year. Once upon a time it was literally a beacon for MK, with its red, neon-lit, pyramid visible from the M1 - until Xscape blocked the view - inviting the curious to explore that exciting new city, the one with the amazing new shopping centre and Britain’s first-ever cinema multiplex. Those in the know, of course, soon realised that the actual cinema screens were in a rather less impressive building tucked away behind the pyramid and right next door to its own multi-storey parking building set further back from Midsummer Boulevard, only accessible by tunnel from the ‘pyramid’. It was, I suppose, a sort of modern day trompe l’oeil or trick of the eye. You thought you were watching movies in a red, neon-lit pyramid but you were watching movies in a cuboid brick box with a flat roof. Sadly, The Point has very much lost its point in the years since
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it closed as a cinema. It’s now just over six years when owners Hammerson applied successfully to demolish it and - ignoring the good advice of many, including myself, that secondary shopping centres were doomed - sought to replace it with a new secondary shopping centre and even add another cinema screen to replace the twice-failed cinema it had already hosted. So, has anything happened since then? Well no, except the unsubstantial steel beams that made up the pyramid are now more rusty and rotting than ever. In the meantime, some use has been made of the flaking carcase including charities using parts of it. The so-called ‘Hidden Festival’ was due to return early this month to ‘transform the iconic Point into a two-day indoor electronic music festival location - in aid of Willen Hospice’. Hidden Festival’s claim was that it was ‘renowned for its ability to breathe life into hidden, disused, and quirky spaces, bringing The Point to life this winter with monumental DJs’. The DJ’s may have been “monumental” but sadly The Point
Business MK | December 2023
is no longer ‘monumental’ and preserving it now, would be in my opinion simply just ‘mental’. Still, I hope the event went well and raised good funds for the very worthy Willen Hospice. Meanwhile, developers GHL (Galliard Holdings Ltd) under a new company GHL (Milton Keynes) Ltd, working in a joint venture with DS Real Estate, has taken over from the misadvised Hammerson and submitted plans, yet again, for the demolition of all the existing and vacant entertainment complex buildings making up The Point and redevelopment to provide flexible Class E leisure/retail uses (upper and lower ground level
where the bingo hall was), up to 487 apartments (Build to Rent, private and affordable; including 233 one-bedroom flats, 187 twobedroom and seven three-bedroom apartments) over the upper floors (up to 21 storeys with a floor to floor height of three metres plus a crown structure), recladding of the existing car park with Class E/F.2/sui generis leisure uses (bar, outdoor sports and yet another doomed to fail cinema) at rooftop level, landscaped public realm, amenity space, cycle parking and associated access and servicing provision. As banal as these plans are - and, trust me, they do for architecture what Wilko did for retail - surely it’s
time for this eyesore to go. The past can never be relived. The worlds of retail and cinema have changed beyond recognition and Milton Keynes needs more accommodation - flats, houses, hotel rooms and homeless shelters. However not everybody agrees and various people including Simon Stevens from the Save The Point group back in 2014 and Christina Cragg from Save The Milton Keynes Point more recently have started petitions to both Milton Keynes City Council and English Heritage. At the time of writing these petitions have received about 4,000 and 2,000 signatures respectively. While I will always support groups determined to make Milton Keynes a better place, my feeling is that they would be far better occupied improving the new plans rather than seeking to preserve a rusting hulk. Perhaps you agree, perhaps you don’t. I’m happy to hear from all. In the meantime, I’d like to wish everybody all the seasonal warmth and comfort that they would wish themselves as we approach year’s end. Surely that is the real Point? Cheerio.
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