Thekla, Bristol

A long established and well known live music venue, this pub on a boat has even had the honour of a visit from Banksy who painted his Grim Reaper on the side just above the waterline, although this has now been removed in order to preserve it. As it’s a live music venue, there is frequently a charge for entry and on several occasions we have been unable to get in without paying which perhaps means that it should be delisted from this site. I’m sure years ago, free entry was more frequent than it seems to be today. Internally it’s a bit of a rabbit warren and I seem to recall that there may be a couple of different bars on two different decks, although we were on the lower one to see the local “scrumpy and western” band the Scimmity Hitchers who were supporting the Lancashire Hot Pots. For the most part you wouldn’t really know you were on a boat, it seems more like an old warehouse perhaps, although certainly in some of the corridors the shape of the external walls and the bracing is evident, and there are also a number of portholes in the loo. Décor wise everything is painted black and the flooring was a remarkably sticky laminate of some sort – so much so it took quite some effort to walk across the room. The bar counter was clad in copper with a rolled top and numerous posters on the wall advertised forthcoming gigs. A mezzanine level floor above had a few booths with padded seating and offered good views of the stage area. Unfortunately there were no real ales on tap, just keg Longhorn IPA and Moor’s PMA. There were however a number of craft beer options in cans including some from Brew Dog among others. The only cider was Thatcher’s Gold. Some of the cocktails had been given an appropriately nautical twist, such as “Sex on the Boat” as opposed to the more usual “Sex on the Beach”. This is a tricky one to mark as it’s not really a pub in the usual sense, but is nonetheless a pretty decent music venue.

Official site of Thekla - www.theklabristol.co.uk

Official site of Thekla - www.theklabristol.co.uk