''Thekla'' is a former cargo ship moored in the Mud Dock area of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

Floating Harbour Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out perm ...

, England. The ship was built in Germany in 1958 and worked in the coastal trades. In 1982 the ship was bought by

Ki Longfellow-Stanshall Ki Longfellow (born Baby Kelly, formerly Pamela Kelly; December 9, 1944 - June 12, 2022) was an American novelist, playwright, theatrical producer, theater director and entrepreneur with dual citizenship in Britain. She is best known in the Un ...

, the wife of

Vivian Stanshall Vivian Stanshall (born Victor Anthony Stanshall; 21 March 1943 – 5 March 1995) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper ...

, refitted, and brought to Bristol in 1983 as the Old Profanity Showboat. It was used as a theatre to showcase music of every sort, including

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dinin ...

, comedy, plays,

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwo ...

s, and poetry events. The ship also contained an

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

. The living quarters were home for Vivian, Ki, their daughter, Silky Longfellow-Stanshall, and Ki's daughter, Sydney Longfellow, as well as a few key personnel. During the 1990s, under new management, it was run as a rent-a-nightclub. The ship has now been returned to its original working name of ''Thekla'' and is run as a night club and venue for various bands by Daybrook House Promotions.

Construction and working life

Built in Yard No. 185, ''Thekla'' was launched on 12 July 1958 by Büsumer-Schiffswerft W & E Sielaff at

Büsum Büsum () is a fishing and tourist town in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the North Sea coast, approx. 18 km southwest of Heide. Büsum is also the administrative seat of the ''Amt'' ("collec ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

for the Schepers family of Haren/Ems. One of the last riveted ships to be produced (the hulls of metal ships have long been made by welding plates), she measured 424 gross registered tons and had a

deadweight tonnage Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, pro ...

of 718 tons. Her overall length is and breadth , with a draft. ''Thekla''s hold was lined with Australian red

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with r ...

, one of the hardest woods. With a single screw propulsion, she was powered by a diesel engine made by Bohn & Kähler,

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

. ''Thekla'' was a

coastal trading vessel Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters or skoots, are shallow-hulled ships used for trade between locations on the same island or continent. Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where deeper-hulled seagoing ships usua ...

carrying a variety of cargoes between northern and western European ports, particularly timber from ports of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. During her trading life, she remained on the ship register of Haren/Ems, passing in ownership from Johann Schepers to Josef Schôning and then Bernhard Schepers but with no change of name. After running aground at Gatesend,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

, she was left rusting away for seven years in the half-abandoned docks of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

on the eastern coast of England, before being purchased by the Stanshalls for £15,000.

Converting a ship into a showboat

The Stanshalls bought the ship with a government-guaranteed loan. Refitted and covered in a new coat of black paint and white paint ''Thekla'' sailed to Bristol in six days and six nights. ''Thekla'' entered the

Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

on 4 August 1983, where it is still moored. Her opening night on 1 May 1984 was filmed as an '' Omnibus''

BBC 1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

documentary by the BBC. For the next two and a half years, The Old Profanity Showboat put on over 240 theatrical productions. To support its theatre and cabaret (which seldom paid for itself), the Old Pro also provided a stage for bands. Within a year, the Old Pro was in use as a small theatre,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

venue, folk club and cabaret. By early 1986, Ki had become exhausted and wanted to go back to writing novels, and Vivian wanted to renew his recording career, and in August 1986 the showboat stopped putting on shows. Noah and the Whale

Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, ''Thekla'' was taken over and run as an underground nightclub. Work by the artist

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...

can be seen stencilled over the bulkheads inside the club as well as his much larger work on the outside of the hull at the waterline. This piece was painted over by the harbour master, much to the annoyance of the club's owners, who threatened the council and harbour master with legal action. Banksy returned to paint it again. The painting of the "Grim Reaper" is now on display at the M Shed. The space on the hull was replaced with artwork by Bristol-born artist,

Inkie Inkie is a London-based painter and street artist, originally from Clifton, Bristol. He is cited as being part of Bristol's graffiti heritage, along with Banksy, 3D and Nick Walker. Career Inkie began working as part of ''Crime Incorporat ...

. The Banksy "Grim Reaper" is still used as key iconography by Thekla. A refurbishment of the ship was completed in October 2006 after being purchased by Daybrook House Promotions (DHP). It remains at the moorings in central Bristol where it was first positioned in 1983 and continues to function as a music venue and nightclub. Artists such as

Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. Fr ...

The New York Dolls New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although the band never achieved much commercial succ ...

Pete Doherty Peter Doherty (born 12 March 1979) is an English musician, songwriter, actor, poet, writer, and artist. He is best known for being co-frontman of The Libertines, which he formed with Carl Barât in 1997. His other musical projects are indie ...

, Tokyo Police Club,

The Growlers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Santigold Santi White (born September 25, 1976), known professionally as Santigold (formerly Santogold), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. '' Billboard'' presented her in 2022, saying: "Spanning punk rock, hip-hop, and dance music, S ...

, Wire, Kevin Coyne, The Chords in their final gig in the classic line-up, and iconic bands from all over the world as well as local acts from Bristol and Bath have played at ''Thekla'' since DHP purchased the venue. Artists that have played the boat since DHP's takeover include

Stormzy Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. (born 26 July 1993), known professionally as Stormzy, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter. In 2014, he gained attention on the UK underground music scene through his ''Wicked Skengman'' series of f ...

and

Phoebe Bridgers Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She has released two solo albums, ''Stranger in the Alps'' (2017) and '' Punisher'' (2020), both of which received critical acclai ...

. The ship was repainted from black to cream and dark green. A further £1m refurbishment of the ship took place in the summer of 2019. For the extensive repairs, the venue was towed away from it's historic spot in the harbour to Albion Drydock. The repairs included a brand new steel offset hull, which was welded into place around the original hull. During this time the venue had to close, and took up temporary residency as "Thekla Faraway" in a bar on Small St in central Bristol - where it's regular club nights continued until it was able to re-open in September that year. In 2020, the venue was forced to temporarily close as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. In accordance with government guidelines, the venue was able to periodically reopen for socially distant "Sit Down Sessions" of its regular club nights. The venue fully re-opened in July 2021.

Footnotes

# ''Thekla'' is still moored in Bristol's Floating Harbour where she was docked in 1983. Today she is used as a venue for bands and club nights. # No advertisements were ever placed anywhere. No one was ever actually interviewed and formally "hired." ''Thekla''s people either came from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, or as customers ... and kept returning until a place was found for them. # The Bristol production of Stinkfoot was celebrated in print with ''Stinkfoot:An English Comic Opera'' by Sea Urchin Editions, with full script, song lyrics, cast, artwork by Stanshall, and an introduction by Ki. #It was not, he insisted, about Christmas, or for Christmas, and it certainly was not a

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speakin ...

, a very British style of entertainment traditionally put on in theatres over the Christmas period. # Stanshall called it his "awkestra"

References

General references

* ''

Venue Venue is the location at which an event takes place. It may refer to: Locations * Venue (law), the place a case is heard * Financial trading venue, a place or system where financial transactions can occur * Music venue, place used for a concer ...

'': 24 Apr – edition of 3 May 2009, Bristol's "What's On" magazine.
The Illustrated Vivian Stanshall, A Fairytale of Grimm Art
by

Ki Longfellow Ki Longfellow (born Baby Kelly, formerly Pamela Kelly; December 9, 1944 - June 12, 2022) was an American novelist, playwright, theatrical producer, theater director and entrepreneur with dual citizenship in Britain. She is best known in the Un ...

-Stanshall.

External links