The Ship
Redcliffe Hill c. 1965-8.
Opposite the spire of St Mary Redcliffe and next to the old Shot Tower, The Ship was a well-known jazz venue and Acker Bilk played here. Peggy Hancock left her job as barmaid at the Radnor Hotel temporarily in about 1965 and offered to open the disused rear snug of the Ship as a cocktail bar. Her crowd of regulars from the Radnor followed, and for a while it was very successful.
Road widening removed all surrounding buildings from 1967 and The Ship was finally demolished (with the adjacent Shot Tower) in December 1968.
Peggy Hancock in 2011
8 Responses to “Ship, Redcliffe Hill”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Many happy nights spent there in the early ’60s with Acker’s band, blue notes etc. Knocking down that pub was an act of vandalism.
I totally agree John it was pre vandalism, I wonder if anyone remembers the BBC documentary film on the Blue Notes playing in the Ship before it was closed, would be great if the BBC could find that and show again to let people see the atmosphere of the pub.
Yes I agree Colin. Many happy evenings at the Ship. I even proposed to my wife there.
Don’t forget Henry’s Bootblacks on Thursday nights. Highlight of my week in mid sixties..
I used to live, there my father and mother ran the pub that was in 1965. He was the landlord his name was Ian McLaren and his wife Winifred. I remember the Blue Notes and Henry’s Bootblacks. I remember the queues of people up the stairs to the function room where the jazz clubs were held
Anyone still with us who used to go to see the Phoenix jazz band on a Friday?
Me too!! I was a HUGE fan of Spencer’s Washboard Kings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_OUPGr3PR0 and Henry sat in on the piano sometimes. Wonderful, memorable evenings with my first girlfriend and Bristol Aeroplane, Filton Apprenticeship friends too. Happy daze! First I’ve heard of it being demolished. I’d LOVED to have had another look! 🙁 My father was born in 1899 so I was brought up with 1920’s jazz music!
The first year with the British Aerospace Co apprenticeship, as it became, we spent in the converted Officer’s mess on the old Filton airfield. I made a lot of life-long friends there. WE were all living away from home at 16yrs of age (like me) if you did ‘O’ Levels or 18yrs of age if you’d done ‘A’ levels.
They stupidly, IMO, destroyed the main runway where the UK Concord made its first flight which was a great asset IMO! I was also sad when I heard from a friend still living in the area that they’d knocked down the old hostel and built houses on the airfield. I hope there’s SOMEONE who knows what they’re doing!
The Ship features in this book.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Carpenter-Americans-Daughter-Dance-Romance/dp/1739497724