In the Gürtel, nobody can hear you scream (in a good way).
What do you do when you wanna rock , but your neighbor up the stairs would prefer you … not ? If you ’re Othmar Bajlicz , music lover , former Austrian footballer , and father of Vienna euphony venueChelsea , you do n’t jeopardize to the other side of the tracks — you go underneath them .
Specifically , you move your popular nightspot from a residential building in District 8 into the arch of a viaduct in Vienna ’s Gürtel , fix by the monumental arterial ring - road disunite the urban center ’s intimate districts from the suburbs ( gürtel is German for bash ) . Here , tuck under the U6 U - Bahn and flank by impenetrable traffic , no one complains about the noise . No one can even learn you . The trains chug overhead are not only unbothered by the amplified sea bass , on occasion they get into it , rattling some beer glasses of their own .
While in hindsight Chelsea ’s current position is ideal for a rambunctious music locus , it took some time to get there — include a suit , and , over three decades ago when the Gürtel was a less than worthy surface area , a bit of courage . But in Bajlicz , Chelsea had an owner who was all in . Retired from association football at the good age of 30 , he gear up his sights on music , and opened the first iteration of Chelsea in 1986 . He had a visual sensation , and the clubhouse filled a much - needed recess . Vienna ’s live medicine scene was sparse and homogeneous , and there was often a cover toll . In a urban center devoid of place where medicine lovers , writers , and editors could simply congregate , Chelsea promised to be their Cheers .
Chelsea, in 2009.|brandstaetter images/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Bajlicz book both disc jockey and band , and served some Anglophilic offerings on tap . ( Though it ’s often consort withthe British football team , it was in fact named after the London neighborhood where hood was born . ) A music magazine was created in conjugation with the distance . The original Chelsea hosted bands with awing names like Pungent Stench and Fetish 69 , and once it gained outside ill fame , attract the ilk of Die Toten Hosen and a little up - and - descend getup call Soundgarden .
But not everyone was so enthusiastic about its arrival . “ People survive in the construction , ” says Bajlicz . “ We had problem with the neighbors about the noise , peculiarly with the live medicine . ” Because of complaints , concert were whittled down to once a week . After a court case , the blank space eventually closed and the team was forced to relocate .
At the same time , Vienna ’s administration was trying to clean up a rundown arena that had become the city ’s ruby visible radiation district . They offered Bajilcz an open - ended occupancy agreement in exchange for a space nobody else wanted . In 1995 , the second incarnation of Chelsea opened its threshold in the Gürtel , and quickly picked up where it go out off . It also kickstarted a trend , becoming the first of many bar and venue to move into the once disparaged area , forming what today is wide deliberate one of Vienna ’s most vibrant , thriving nightlife surface area : a true metropolitan success history . The arch under the viaduct became so popular that they later attracted another set of arches : a pair of golden one , attached to a bi - degree McDonald ’s , which comes in moderately handy after a Nox out .
One of the early shows in the new space.|Chelsea
Think of Vienna as a cell . In the nucleus is the quondam medieval city , once a camp for the Roman Empire , later the nerve centre of the European macrocosm under the Austrian Habsburgs . Here you ’ll find your ( multiple ) museum , your classic euphony venues , and your Spanish Riding School . There ’s high - remainder shopping streets and , in the winter , a server of traditionalChristmas markets . It ’s the country ’s administrative , political , and economical center , with buildings like the Austrian Treasury and the gorgeous St. Stephen ’s Cathedral outdoors for studying . Once palisade in , this historical core — the Innere Stadt , or District 1 of Vienna ’s 23 geographic designations — is where tourist are most potential to gravitate . And it ’s easy to know its limits : where the old town walls once stood is now the noted Ringstraße , or ring road .
There was once another fortified wall sectioning off section of the city . While the Ringstraße make an internal pocket for the church building and the ruling class , its outstanding avenue a stage for powerful actor , a concentric outer rampart view as the businesses , suburbs , and labor . After it was demolished , in 1873 its site became the Wiener Gürtelstraße — conversationally , the Gürtel — a major thoroughfare apply by the gumption of the metropolis .
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In the late 1800s , an almost fully high-minded railway was added to the Gürtel to shuttle even more bodies to and from the metropolis ’s industrial doughnut . The powers that be opted to model the tracks after a R.C. viaduct , both functionally and esthetically . From the beginning , they picture leasing the arched spaces below , which array from one to three floors depending on height fluctuation , out to local businesses . Leading Viennese architect Otto Wagner — a founder of the Secession Movement — was enlisted to perform the vision ; he designed the semicircular openings with transparent enclosures for passersby to peer directly into the Department of Commerce .
As plan , shop and other line of work move into the ground floor stacks and the area thrived . But then come WWII , when many of the glass facades were shattered or sealed in for cover . The viaduct started to resemble a wall , once again create a segmentation in the city . As merchants leave , less and less people amount around . At the same time , automobile polish blow up , and the Gürtel was widen to eight busy lanes to accommodate the inflow of railcar . In their backwash came rearing exhaust fumes pollution and stochasticity , empty storefronts , and societal abjection — an untempting landscape for anyone look for a smogless , chaste urban adventure . But gross for a crimson light district . And also music venues . And the eventual endeavor to turn the arena around .
Which brings us to Chelsea . To be unmortgaged , sex work is effectual in Austria ( for the most part ) , but while there ’s no official red light district , establishment are concentrated in sure domain , include within the northern Gürtel . In this particular strip , however , it ’s all about the music .
The Vienna State Opera.|Courtesy of WienTourismus/Christian Stemper
You ’d be forgive for not knowing what you might run into behind Chelsea ’s doors . Unlike many of its neighbour , with their arched facades once again feature transparent chicken feed — all the better to tempt you in by what ’s inside — from its exterior , Chelsea is a mystery , keep for the countless music poster taped to the windows . And mistreat inside does n’t really well-defined things up , either . You ’re greet by a bar brim with booze and slap with spikelet . On a mounted video , a association football game run unceremoniously . There ’s sport gear scattered about — miniature team pendants , vintage photo of matches .
Turning leave , the space is awash in crimson Light Within , sectioned off by hover brick archway . The second way obtain another bar , this one with an adjoining saltation flooring ; it ’s so early in the evening when I visit , there ’s just one supporter inside , give suck a beer . The interior compound through another arch , then another , capped with a stage . Bajlicz explains the innovation ’s eclectic method : “ Our main goal is music — bouncy gigs , disk jockey , and indie discotheque on weekend . We are medicine aficionados . ”
And he ’s not kidding . They throw about 200 concert each year , typically favoring Britpop and tinder . But just like Bajlicz , the locus also has a sportsmanlike side . “ We also show football game games from all the primary European Leagues , ” he adds . “ English Premier League , Italian Serie A , Spanish La Liga , German Bundesliga , and Austrian Bundesliga . ” If none of that appealingness , there ’s also pop polish - theme pub trivia .
When the weather condition ’s decent , outdoor board allow gang to spill onto the street , march up against the several other venues that have set up store since Chelsea prove the area viable . There ’s the relaxedLoop , with costless admittance , music , schnitzel , and cocktail , andrhiz , its glass doors propagate electronica aspirations to the street . B72is a bi - horizontal surface live music hotpot , host bud alternative human activity and the episodic emo dark .
Each young arched doorway provide another chance for a good night out . The modernHalbestadt Barhas consistently been called out as one of the near places in town to delight a tipple . There’sCoco Bar , a music locus where you could also catch a football game , dance clubs like[kju :] , the world euphony - heavyFanialive , andthe Loft , which ranges from rowdy parties to tranquilize poetry nights . TheKramladendoes a petty bit of everything , include clowning nights , whileCafé Carina’sfree offering start the gamut from rock to open mics . need food ? Just a few dance step from Chelsea sits the silken gastropubGürtelbräu , its brick arch and lenient firing make it a pick engagement night finish .
And just a few pulley-block out , past some greenery , you ’ll encounter what is possibly the most artistic McDonald ’s you ’ve ever seen . You could have a fairly dear time there too — it , like all Austrian McDonald ’s franchises , serve beer alongside delicious - looking pastries . Not that Bajlicz would sleep with . “ I was not surprised when the McDonald ’s moved in , ” he says . “ But I do n’t go there . ”
Deciding what’s next for the night.|Courtesy of Chelsea
Hang inside or outside at Loop.|Loop Wien
