Gay's The Word

An excellent independent LGBT bookshop — the only one in England — and one which has survived both a government raid and the digital era. Started in 1979 by inspired leftists (and thriving in 2022), Gay's the Word has remained a fixture of the gay community and a great resource. In the mid-1980s it offered a haven for the activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, as documented in Matthew Warchus's feature drama PRIDE (2014). The shelves contain an impressive stock of fiction, poetry, history, biography, queer studies, and graphic and young adult novels, plus badges, DVDs and LGSM t-shirts and posters. Book events and discussion groups are a regularity, and the shop, still signposted with a pair of pink triangles rather than a rainbow flat, has staged readings and signings by scores of A-list writers over the years. Tube station: Russell Square.