Part of the Gay London Guide — bars, events & things to do.
London, London
The UK's oldest LGBTQ+ bookshop, on Marchmont Street since 1979
Gay's The Word opened on Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury in January 1979 and is the UK's oldest LGBTQ+ bookshop — for a time, the only one in the country. The shelves run deep across fiction, memoir, history, poetry, trans and nonbinary titles, and queer classics. In 1984, Customs and Excise raided the shop under a Victorian-era law and charged its directors with conspiracy to import indecent books; a defence campaign rallied writers and publishers, and the charges were dropped in 1986. The shop has outlasted that fight, rising Bloomsbury rents, a 2007 near-closure reversed by a community fundraising drive, and the long shift to online retail. It's also woven into wider history — Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners met here during the 1984–85 strike, the story behind the film Pride, and a blue plaque to LGSM's Mark Ashton sits above the door. Still very much a working community space: readings, launches, and group meetups happen regularly.
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