'Town centres first': The relocation of the cinema from out-of-town to the town centre in Britain since 1985

Though the multiplex cinema is still located predominantly outside the urban centre, changes to planning laws in the past fifteen years and a developing culture of “town centres first” has seen the re-emergence of the cinema as a key feature of the town centre. This is increasingly an economy that positions the cinema in relation to a series of other commercial and leisure enterprises, such as bars, nightclubs and restaurants. This has meant that the cinema, historically associated with the town centre of course, has become an integral part of their development once more. This chapter considers the reemergence of the cinema in the town centre and the reasons for this, how important the cinema is for specifying the urban leisure experience and the impact upon the design of cinemas. It does so through two case studies of Corby and Melton Mowbray, in the East Midlands region of the UK.