It was an afternoon in late February of 1896 that 54 passersby sat in a small theatre on Regent Street. There was little to suggest to this audience, many of whom had wandered in from the street, that for the price of a shilling they would be about to witness cinematic history. For this series of silent, grainy, 40-second scenes of ordinary life, hand-cranked through a projector, were the first pieces of moving footage to be shown in the UK. It would go on to form the foundations of the multimillion-pound global film industry we know today.
Source: Remaking a classic: Regent Street Cinema to reopen doors after 35 years | Film | The Guardian