Gay's The Word opened on Marchmont Street in January 1979 and is the oldest LGBT+ bookshop in the country. It is a single room in Bloomsbury, and it has been in the same one the whole time.
The stock is fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, young adult, classics, rare and second-hand titles, with a section for people who are working out how to come out. Staff know the stock and will find things for you, which is most of the reason to come here rather than order online.
Two things from its history still shape the place. In 1984 customs officers raided the shop and seized imported books under obscenity law, and the case took two years to collapse. The same year the shop's back room hosted the meetings of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, the story the film Pride is based on. It runs book groups and readings, and it works as a noticeboard for queer London as much as a shop.
Address:
66 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AB, United Kingdom
Phone:
+44 20 7278 7654
Email:
gaystheword@gmail.com
Website:
https://www.gaystheword.co.uk/
