A former German cargo ship moored in Bristol's Floating Harbour, Thekla is one of the most distinctive music venues in Britain. The vessel was built in 1958 at Busum in Schleswig-Holstein for the Schepers family of Haren, one of the last riveted ships of its kind, and spent almost two decades as a coastal trader carrying cargoes, particularly Baltic timber, between northern and western European ports, its hold lined with durable Australian red jarrah wood. After running aground and lying abandoned for seven years, half submerged in a Sunderland dock, the ship was bought in 1982 by the novelist Ki Longfellow-Stanshall and her husband, musician Vivian Stanshall. A scratch crew prepared it for sea and sailed it around the east coast of England to Bristol in 1983, where it opened in 1984 as the Old Profanity Showboat, a floating theatre and arts space staging cabaret, comedy, plays and music, with an art gallery and living quarters aboard. Reopened as Thekla in 1987 and run through the 1990s as an underground rent-a-nightclub, the boat developed a reputation for club nights, and stencilled work by the artist Banksy survives on its bulkheads and on the hull at the waterline. Since 2006 it has been owned and operated by the independent promoter DHP Family, who refurbished the vessel and continue to run it as a music venue and nightclub. With a capacity of around 400 in its main cargo-hold room and roughly 600 across both decks, Thekla hosts an intimate, energetic mix of live gigs and club nights spanning indie, rock, electronic, punk and hip-hop. Artists from Franz Ferdinand and the New York Dolls to Stormzy, Phoebe Bridgers and Lewis Capaldi have played the boat, which the Music Venue Trust has singled out as a special venue with an extraordinary history. The ship has been repainted over the years and underwent a major hull-strengthening refit, ensuring its survival at the central moorings it has occupied since 1983. Marking four decades as a Bristol institution, Thekla remains a cornerstone of the city's music scene and a rare example of a working cargo vessel turned grassroots venue.

Type: NightClub

Address: The Grove, Bristol, United Kingdom, BS1 4RB

Website: https://www.theklabristol.co.uk

Opening Date: 01/01/1984