DHP Family Invests $1.3M Into Live Music Boat Venue Thekla

– Thekla
An iconic music venue in an iconic British music city: Bristol

DHP Family announced a £1 million ($1.3 million) overhaul of its iconic Thekla boat venue in Bristol, England.

According to an announcement by DHP Family, the boat will be taken into dry dock on June 3. The maintenance works are expected to last until September and secure Thekla’s future for the next 50 years.

The boat will have a new, steel offset hull welded into place around the whole of the existing hull. Although Thekla undergoes regular, routine inspection and repair a detailed survey showed that the existing hull is near the end of its life.

– Thekla’s 400 capacity concert hall
Florence + the Machine, White Denim, Mumford & Sons, Ellie Goulding and many others have played the venue in the past

Ahead of its overhaul Thekla celebrates its 35th anniversary weekend, May 2-5 with sets including BBC Radio 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and Drum & Bass star Roni Size. 

Following a pop-themed “Pop Confessional” night on June 1, Thekla will be towed into the Albion dry dock nearby where a team of experienced craftsmen will work on the boat for three months.

Thekla returns to its usual position in the harbor in early September 2019; the team will announce the exact date of its reopening through its website and social media channels.

“There’s a lot of love for Thekla in Bristol, around the country and worldwide. Both music fans and bands like Florence + the Machine, White Denim, Mumford & Sons, Ellie Goulding and many others who have played there over the years have taken part in some great nights,” DHP Family MD and Thekla owner George Akins said.

“We’re committed to preserving that heritage and that’s why we’re getting the new hull fitted – we need to make sure that Thekla continues to be a great night out for the next fifty years,” he continued.

– Thekla
On deck

 

At over 50 meters in length, Thekla is one of the longest ships in Bristol’s Floating Harbour. Given its size, the majority of the £1m investment will go on the new hull though other improvements and repairs will take place.

 

The grade II listed Albion dry dock, where the maintenance work will take place, was reopened in 2018. Martin Childs of the Albion Dock Company said: “We are very pleased to be undertaking works on the Thekla and so secure her long term future in Bristol. Equally, her visit to the Albion Dockyard helps our venture bringing this historic facility back to full time use as a working dry dock.”

Thekla History:

 

Thekla arrived in Bristol in 1983 and has become a much-loved music venue in the city.

 

Originally a cargo ship, built in Germany in 1958, Thekla carried goods between northern and western European ports before running aground at Gatesend, Norfolk in 1975. She was left rusting away for seven years in the half-abandoned docks of Sunderland, before being purchased by Vivian Stanshall and Ki Longfellow-Stanshall for £15,000.

 

Thekla entered the Severn river estuary on Aug. 4, 1983 and arrived in the Floating Harbour in Bristol as the “Old Profanity Showboat.” She was used as a theater to showcase music of every sort, including cabaret, comedy, plays, musicals and poetry events. The ship also contained an art gallery.

 

By early 1986, Ki had become exhausted by the daily running of such a huge venture and, on announcing closure of the ship, a deluge of artists and customers protested and the vessel continued to showcase theatre and bands until August 1986.

 

Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Thekla was taken over and run as an underground nightclub. A refurbishment of the vessel was completed in October 2006 after being purchased by Daybrook House Promotions (now DHP Family). She remains at the moorings in central Bristol where she was first positioned in 1983 and continues to function as a music venue and nightclub.