Greenock
The coast of Greenock formed a broad bay with three smaller indentations: the Bay of Quick was known as a safe anchorage as far back as 1164. To its east, a sandy bay ran eastwards from the Old Kirk and the West Burn as far as Wester Greenock castle. The fishing village of Greenock developed along this bay, and around 1635 Sir John Schaw had a jetty built into the bay which became known as Sir John's Bay. In that year he obtained a Charter raising Greenock to a Burgh of Barony with rights to a weekly market. Further east, Saint Laurence Bay curved round past the Crawfurd Barony of Easter Greenock to Garvel (or Gravel) Point. When a pier (or dyke) was built making the bay an important harbour, the fishing village of Cartsburn gained the alternative name of Crawfurdsdyke. In 1642 it was made into the Burgh of Barony of Crawfurdsdyke, and part of the ill-fated Darien Scheme set out from this pier in 1697. This town was later renamed Cartsdyke.
Greenock Arts Guild
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.