Arts Guild Theatre (Greenock)
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| Address | Campbell Street Greenock Scotland |
|---|---|
| Type | Proscenium Arch |
| Capacity |
Main Auditorium - 454 raked seats total on two levels (120 circle, 334 stalls, including 5 wheelchair spaces) Wallace Bennett Theatre - 80 seated |
| Opened |
Wallace Bennett Theatre (1949) Main Auditorium (1951) |
| Years active | 61 |
Main Auditorium - 454 raked seats total on two levels (120 circle, 334 stalls, including 5 wheelchair spaces)
Wallace Bennett Theatre (1949)
The Arts Guild Theatre is located in Greenock, Scotland. The idea for the theatre was conceived by a group of local drama enthusiasts in 1946. The building contains two theatres, the Wallace Bennett Theatre and the Main Auditorium, and was previously a disused Victorian swimming pool. The Guild is now half receiving house and half producing house featuring performers including Dorothy Paul, Scottish Opera, Dean Park, Frank Pilkington and other acts such as Frankie Boyle and Amy Macdonald.
The theatre is situated on Campbell Street in Greenock, Inverclyde and is close to Greenock town centre.
The need for the Arts Guild Theatre was originally thought of by a group of local drama enthusiasts in 1946. This was due to the lack of proper facilities in which cultural and theatrical activities could take place in the Inverclyde area and the group bought the "Old West End Baths" for £1000. The Wallace Bennett theatre was the first of the two theatres located on the first floor of the building and was named after a local amateur actor of the same name, who died in the recent war. (World War II)
The 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 Wallace Bennett Theatre was opened to public performances in 1949 and allowed the Arts Guild to gather a local reputation to help it cover the cost of building the Main Auditorium. Construction of the theatre finished in 1951, making it the first theatre to be built within Scotland in 25 years.
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