'The Love boat' with a 'smoke room' once floated on River Mersey

Through the decades, Liverpool has been home to many nightclubs, bars and restaurants with their own interesting concepts. This included a number of unique venues that were based on the River Mersey.

From evening meals to celebrating an occasion, attending a dance or enjoying some fish and chips while taking in the view of Liverpool's waterfront, many businesses are still fondly remembered today.

Earlier this month, the ECHO reported how a multi-million pound renovation of a historic Mersey Ferry into a floating restaurant and bar space is to officially open next month. For years, the MV Royal Daffodil took thousands of passengers across the River Mersey and was renamed Royal Daffodil in 1999 after an extensive refit as a party and dance cruising vessel.

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Eventually decommissioned in 2012 due to a breakdown in one of her two engines, the site fell into disrepair but will now reopen as a new business, The Daffodil, on December 9. As another floating business is set to open, we take a look back at a number of floating nightclubs and restaurants that once called the River Mersey home.

This list isn't intended to be comprehensive and includes a number of lost businesses on Merseyside through the generations. See how many you remember in our list below.

The Royal Iris

The Royal Iris was a fixture on the River Mersey for more than 40 years. Built for £256,000 at Dumbarton on the Clyde in 1950, it came to Merseyside the following year and went on to inspire Gerry Marsden's iconic anthem Ferry Cross the Mersey - as well as host The Beatles the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in its time.

In its early years, the 1,448-ton vessel boasted a pillarless dance hall, a smoke room, a fish and chips saloon, bars and buffets, and air conditioning throughout. It was affectionately nicknamed "the love boat" and "the fish and chip boat."

Fast-forward to 1971, the Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority agreed to spend £68,292 modernising the Royal Iris, including provision of a steak bar in place of the fish and chip saloon and facilities for luncheons and dinner parties on board.

The Royal Iris was taken out of service in January 1991 because of rising repair costs and was water sold to a consortium who wanted to turn her into a nightclub in Cardiff.

When the nightclub plans did not come to fruition, she was sold on again and towed to her current resting place in Woolwich, just east of the Thames Barrier. There have been various plans to bring the Royal Iris back to Merseyside and over the years, a number of people have campaigned for her return.

Clubship Landfall

Certain generations will also remember the days of the Clubship Landfall nightclub. But the site has a fascinating history before that - and still exists today.

Moored in Salthouse Dock, the club was originally a converted tank landing craft LCT 7074 that started life in 1944 and took part in the D-Day landings in June that year. In 1946, it became the floating home of the Master Mariners’ Association of Liverpool.

By the late 1960s, the venue took on a completely new life when business partners George 'Jud' Evans and Colin Peers bought it and transformed it into a popular nightclub venue. Clubbers would come onboard and walk through a hatch-like door to lower levels where they could grab a drink from the bar or head to the colourful dancefloor that lit up from underneath.

After owning the club for over a decade, in the 1980s the Clubship Landfall was sold and at one point sunk until it was rescued and restored. Landing Craft Tank 7074 (LCT 7074) is the only known surviving ship of its kind which took part in the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944 and has since undergone extensive conservation and restoration work, now on display at The D-Day Story in Portsmouth.

Earlier this year, Antiques Roadshow visited it to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The episode saw presenter Mark Smith stepped onto Landing Craft Tank 7074 (LCT 7074),

The Manxman

It was back in 1955 that the Manxman launched at Cammell Laird's North Yard in Birkenhead by Margaret Garside, wife of the then chairman of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. The final passenger-only turbine steamer to be built in that period, her maiden voyage was from Douglas to Liverpool on May 21, 1955, under the command of Captain "Ginger" Bridson.

Built at a cost of over £800,000, the Manxman spent the next 27 years running services all over the Irish Sea for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, returning to Birkenhead each winter for an overhaul. Weighing in at 2,500 tons, the Manxman featured five decks and had a capacity of around 2,300 passengers.

But, by September 1982, the fate of the passenger ferry changed forever. That year, the Manxman sailed from Liverpool to Preston, where it was intended to become a floating museum.

The ECHO previously reported how after a couple of years lack of business caused the ship to be remodelled as a nightclub called Manxman Princess. After some success, she was moved in 1990 to Waterloo Dock in Liverpool's Waterloo Dock, due to the River Lune silting up.

If you were old enough to go clubbing at the time, you may remember dressing up and heading to the Manxman for a night out. But a few years in operation, the Manxman again left Merseyside for a new home.

The venue is said to have been too far out of town for local clubbers and was subsequently moved to Hull in 1994 and then Sunderland in 1997. Eventually, she was "broken up for scrap in 2012," Hull Live previously reported.

The Daffodil

For more than six decades, the MV Royal Daffodil took thousands of passengers across the river connecting Liverpool and Wirral. Originally named Overchurch, the vessel served as a cross-river transport and cruising vessel following her maiden voyage in April 1962.

Before the millennium, she was re-named Royal Daffodil in 1999 after an extensive refit as a party and dance cruising vessel. But after a further decade of active service post 1999, she was eventually decommissioned in 2012 due to a breakdown in one of her two engines.

Now, more than a decade since she was decommissioned and fell into disrepair, a multi-million pound renovation of the historic Mersey Ferry into a floating restaurant and bar space is to officially open to the public next month. Renamed Daffodil, the £3.5m project is being fronted by directors Josh Boyd and Philip Borg-Olivier, the former Brookside actor.

Having originally been submitted in 2019, fresh designs were put forward to reimagine the ferry into a restaurant, bar and event space last summer. It will open for the first time on December 9.

The Daffodil will be anchored at a mooring point located within Canning Dock, leased from Canal and River Trust. Bookings are now being taken with the grand opening and the business will offer an all day menu, as well as a la carte, brunch and a afternoon menu.