Event Venues & Locations

Thekla is a cargo ship which houses a music venue of the same name, moored in the Mud Dock area of Bristol’s Floating Harbour, England. Originally brought to Bristol as the Old Profanity Showboat, it was a late 1982 brainchild of novelist Ki Longfellow-Stanshall, the wife of Vivian Stanshall.

The showboat was based on the idea of creating, owning, and running a theatre on a sea-going ship and using it to showcase music of every sort (limited only by the size of the hold), including cabaret, comedy, plays, musicals, and poetry events. The ship also contained an art gallery. 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.