Dear Editor, Paul Dale’s article on ‘drunken violence in Birmingham’s gay quarter’ (Post, Dec 23) demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of geography and fact.

Neither of the venues mentioned are in the gay village, nor do they cater for a gay clientele.

Hurst Street is really quite long, Paul, and you have to get well past the Hippodrome before you arrive at the excellent bars that ARE in the gay village.

If you take the effort to discover the likes of Loft Lounge, The Village Inn, Equator Bar and Eden, you will find well-run venues, offering quality ambience and entertainment, all year round.

Instead of lazy journalism, why not write up the success of the Nightingale Club, of international repute and now in its 41st year, or celebrate the re-opening of that Birmingham institution, Bar Jester, at the start of Bristol Street?

The fact of the matter is that Birmingham’s gay village is a very safe area in one of the safest cities in the country.

On the rare occasion that there is ‘drunken violence’ it has normally been displaced from less well-run (straight) establishments, elsewhere in the city.

Steve Bedser,
Ryland Road,
Edgbaston