The Greenock Arts Guild formed in 1946. Their Arts Guild Theatre on Campbell Street in Greenock, Scotland, held public performances from 1947 to December 8, 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. Location The Arts Guild Theatre was situated on Campbell Street in Greenock, Inverclyde, immediately to the west of the railway line leading to Princes Pier, at the start of Greenock's West End residential area. The Beacon Arts Centre is at Customhouse Quay, just across the A8 main road from Greenock's town centre, between the area in front of the Custom House and the East India Harbour. Its Bar + Kitchen café / restaurant and first floor Gallery Suite look out over the River Clyde and Firth of Clyde to the hills of Dunbartonshire and Argyll. History: Arts Guild Theatre 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