Literary London

Where the books were written, set, sold, printed and buried: from the Globe to the graves, the bookshops to the presses.

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Gay's the Word

Britain's first lesbian and gay bookshop, on Marchmont Street since 1979.

BookshopsGo inside

Photo by Ross Burgess, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Opened in 1979 by Ernest Hole in a Bloomsbury shopfront and named after an Ivor Novello musical, the shop was raided by Customs in 1984, which seized imported books by Vidal, Genet and Wilde as obscene; the case collapsed and the shop became a rallying point, the meeting place of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, whose story the film Pride retold. Still one room, still independent, with readings most weeks and a window that is a small history of the movement.

Where
66 Marchmont Street, WC1N 1AB
Nearest station
Russell Square · 3 min walk

Hours

MondayClosed
Tuesday11:00 – 18:00
Wednesday11:00 – 18:00
Thursday11:00 – 18:00
Friday11:00 – 18:00
Saturday11:00 – 18:00
Sunday13:00 – 18:00

Hours from the page that lists them, checked 5 September 2026.

Closed on Mondays.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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