page_title: Greenock Arts Guild
section_title: History: Arts Guild Theatre
hierarchical_section_title: Greenock Arts Guild / History: Arts Guild Theatre
caption_attribution_description: English: Arts Guild Theatre. On Campbell Street. Yes, believe it! That is Greenock actor Richard Wilson (aka Victor Meldrew) encouraging locals to support the Guild. The building formerly housed the west end baths, photos of which can be found on the Guild's web site http://www.artsguildtheatre.co.uk/index.asp The date stone above the front door (obscured by the tree) can be seen here 657092.
context_page_description: The Greenock Arts Guild formed in 1946. Their Arts Guild Theatre on Campbell Street in Greenock, Scotland, held public performances from 1947 to 8 December 2012, then in January 2013 they opened the Beacon Arts Centre, a new building on Greenock's waterfront, adjacent to Customhouse Quay. Its main performance spaces are the Main Auditorium and The Studio theatre space. A Gallery Suite provides multifunction meeting, rehearsal and functions space, the "Bar + Kitchen" bistro café serves meals at lunchtime and before specific events. The Gallery Suite and the restaurant have full height glazed walls looking directly out over the River Clyde to the hills of Dunbartonshire and Argyll.
  The Arts Guild Theatre was adapted from a disused Victorian swimming pool, its Wallace Bennett Theatre opened in 1949 followed by the Main Auditorium in 1955. It became a receiving house for touring shows, as well as producing house with half the performances amateur, as well as providing classes and workshops in music, art and drama.
context_section_description: In the immediate aftermath of World War II, people of Greenock sought a war memorial to be "something worthy of the sacrifice of the fallen, and of practical value to those who have survived". The Greenock Telegraph publicised the need for ideas, and its managing director Ryrie J Erskine Orr spoke at the 1945 West Renfrewshire Drama Festival, proposing "a beautiful and living theatre that would be the headquarters of all the cultured arts."
  The Greenock Arts Guild Ltd was founded as a non-profit charitable company to promote local participation in arts activities, and incorporated on 4 December 1946. They bought the  "West End Baths", a disused private swimming pool built in 1881 which had closed in 1941, put together plans and material, and raised funds for its conversion. They also promoted theatre productions in other halls in the interim. 
  The Arts Guild Theatre opened in 1949 with two meeting rooms and a small 100-seat theatre on the first floor of the building, which was named the Wallace Bennett Theatre in memory of a Royal Air Force serviceman from Greenock, and occupied the former billiards room. This was the first new theatre in mainland Britain for more than twenty years, and was greeted with widespread expressions of support, including messages from Benjamin Britten, John Gielgud, Malcolm Sargent, Sybil Thorndyke and Vaughan Williams.
  Public performances in this theatre enabled the Arts Guild to gather a local reputation, which helped it to raise funds to cover the cost of building the Main Auditorium. The building had cost £1,000, and construction of the bottom floor theatre (now named the Main Auditorium) was estimated in 1947 to cost within the region of £18,000.The Scottish Arts Council at the time where impressed with the enthusiasm of the group and proposed to lend £9,000 to aid with its construction.
  The Main Auditorium which opened in 1955 was converted from the swimming pool itself, with the slope of the pool floor forming raked stalls giving good sightlines to the stage built at the pool's deep end. A live television broadcast from this theatre in 1956 made The Greenock Players (which had formed in 1943) the first amateur dramatic company in Scotland to be televised. The Arts Guild Theatre complex developed as an arts centre and community theatre, with performances from both amateur and professional theatre companies. A scenery store and two additional meeting rooms were added in the 1960s, and in the 1980s the Wallace Bennett Theatre was adapted to become a flexible studio space.
  The Main Auditorium provided 454 raked seats in total on two levels (120 circle, 334 stalls, including 5 wheelchair spaces). The Wallace Bennett Theatre allowed 80 seated places. The Arts Guild Theatre also had four dressing rooms, and four rehearsal rooms. It became a receiving house for touring shows, including well known names such as Scottish Opera and Dorothy Paul, as well as producing house with half the performances amateur. It also put on classes and workshops in music, art and drama.
caption: The theatre building entrance area seen from Campbell Street: the swimming pool converted to Main Auditorium was to the left of this picture.
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