Discover the UK's 'most remote gay bar'

If you moved to a city from a small town, you’ll be familiar with the sinking feeling the accompanies seeing the concentration of gay men slowly deplete on Grindr, as the urban sprawl gives way to more provincial scenes on your journey back home.

The truth is, living in a city is a kind of privilege. Gay bars are easy to get to, there’s a steady supply of eligible bachelors, and – while there are theoretically more people to give you grief for your sexuality – your neighbours tend to be a little more used to seeing gay people doing gay things.

For the LGBT residents of Strabane, a Northern Irish town of 18,000, things couldn’t be more different.

A 2014 survey revealed that 1.6% of British people identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Even if we massage that up to 2% (taking into account trans people), that suggests there’s only around 360 LGBT people in Strabane. Compared with central London, where you can find 360 gay guys on Grindr within spitting distance, you can see how socialising might be a little trickier.

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Luckily, one (straight, teetotal) man gave LGBT locals a place to meet up when he opened The Central Bar, Strabane’s first and only gay bar, in 2008.

Given it’s unique positioning and unlikely management, it’s no wonder filmmaker Vik Patel was inspired to create a short documentary about this gay oasis in a very straight desert, which lands on All 4 this Friday (July 22).

The Central Bar's owner (third from the left) and his staff holding a fundraiser for Gaza at the bar.

According to Patel, Strabane is “remote and removed from bigger urban areas like Belfast, so it doesn’t seem to benefit from investment the way those places do. I can understand why many LGBT youths growing up in a rural areas move to larger urban spaces, where they feel they can be themselves. But it’s not unique to Strabane”.

Initially the bar seemed so improbable that no one was sure if it really existed. “It was like a humorous urban legend because our contact didn’t believe Strabane would ever have a gay bar,” jokes Patel.

Locals were just as surprised when the bar was announced, with some threatening to protest it: “there was a backlash and threats of protests from local religious groups who felt like it went against their beliefs”.

Thankfully venue is very much real. And, luckily, while the bar did materialise, the “bus load of protestors” that were promised did not.

Eight years later and the bar is a local cultural focal point, with people of all sexualities and gender expressions coming to wet their whistles. But with only 300 or so LGBT residents, how can the bar stay afloat?

“It’s a gay bar frequented largely by straight people; that’s unusual,” says Patel. Apparently some of the bar’s LGBT patrons aren’t overly thrilled by this, with many feeling “like it’s a gay bar in name only”, and not necessarily a “safe space for them”.

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Whether you view a large influx of straight punters in a gay pub as a good or bad thing, they’re the bar’s bread and butter – the owner previously attempted an LGBT-only night but “couldn’t get enough people”. For better or worse, “they’ve had to be inclusive to be continuously successful”.

Still for all, as Patel notes, the bar “raises the visibility of the LGBT community”. And while it won’t suit everyone’s needs, the venue’s contradictory and sometimes problematic nature might just keep it interesting enough to keep the punters coming.

You can catch “Only Gay Bar in The Village” online at All 4 from Friday July 22.

Discover the UK’s ‘most remote gay bar’

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