The Tower has been a hotspot of culture in Helensburgh for years.
The former church was transformed into a community cinema and has also played host to live bands, stand-up-comedy and even ballet.
But its future is uncertain and staff and volunteers are now fighting tirelessly to rescue it from closure.
They are on the cusp of a community buy-out and are awaiting the results of a bid to the Scottish Land Fund for 80% of the building’s £240,000 valuation.
Even if their funding bid is successful they will still have to raise an additional £60,000 among the community to cover the shortfall.
“I think I speak for the Steering Group when I say this, but not succeeding is just not an option,” said Donna Hicks, from the Save The Tower campaign group.
“We just cannot bare the thought of this place not continuing in its form – or even better than it has been before.”
STV NewsThe group was formed last year when the current owner decided to retire, and the cinema was temporarily shut.
Without its presence in the town, the next nearest cinema is nearly 20 miles away in Clydebank.
The team were granted access by the current owner for fundraising nights and have hosted live gigs and Christmas movie nights to help drum up support.
STV NewsDonna said: “We have already raised over £21,000 and we are hoping to raise the remainder from more fundraising events, our pledging scheme that we are about to announce, Go Fund Me donations and grants.
“We’d love to hear from any businesses or individuals who can help us realise our dream of bringing The Tower into community ownership.”
She added: “The Tower is a really special place, offering a whole range of different types of entertainment – it’s a real hub of Helensburgh.”
The building was originally run by the Church of Scotland and closed it’s door before being transformed into a three-screen cinema.
STV NewsDonna said: “The architect who designed this church previously had only ever designed theatres. Therefore, the acoustics in this building are really quite special. It’s more akin to the acoustics you would find in a theatre rather than a church, so there are lots of things about it that work really, really well.”
A survey revealed that the B-listed building needs approximately £41,000 of repairs required to keep it in shape and the team are proposing a five-year maintenance plan to ensure it stays in the best possible condition.
“The fear would be that if it was unoccupied it would simply just decay and that would just be heartbreaking given what the building is capable of,” said Donna.
In September, the team gathered over 2,000 surveys from the community detailing what the building means to the public and their views on its closure.
“The feedback was amazing,” said Donna. “What we do know though is that young people don’t fill out surveys so we’ve had to extrapolate that information from other places, talking to young people who are connected to the building and finding out the types of things that they would be interested in.
“One thing that came from that was that there was nowhere of this size for local bands for young people under the age of 18 – that’s given us a sense of this could look like for young people going forward.”
The team have set up a Go Fund Me page and have fundraising nights planned over the next month.
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