22 September 1910: Brighton’s Duke of York's Picturehouse opens

Sea, sunshine and cinema – the Duke of York's Picturehouse in Brighton was opened by Violet Melnotte-Wyatt on this day in 1910, and it's still in business today.

Sweeping technological change has rung the death-knell of many a business. Just look at how the internet has transformed the book trade, or how digital cameras spelled the demise of Kodak, a one-time titan in its field.But there have always been a few business leaders who sensed change in the air long before anyone else, and embraced the opportunities it would bring. One such entrepreneurial visionary was Violet Melnotte-Wyatt.

Born in 1855, Melnotte-Wyatt started out in showbiz treading the boards in London, before moving into theatre management. But as the decades progressed, so did the advances in early cinema, none of which was lost on Melnotte-Wyatt. On 22 September 1910, the grande dame of theatreland opened Britain's oldest cinema still in continuous use the Duke of York's Picturehouse in Brighton, named after the West End theatre she had built with her husband, Frank Wyatt, in the 1890s.

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

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