Eight of the best LGBTQ+ bookshops across the UK
Influence marks the start of Pride month by spotlighting eight LGBTQ+ bookshops from Belfast to Plymouth which need your support throughout the year.
LGBTQ+ bookshops not only provide an outlet for new, emerging and established authors but also a sense of community for those who visit - often with a packed schedule of talks, workshops or space to enjoy a coffee while previewing their collections. But with some of these bookshops experiencing soaring rents, online competition and homophobic attacks, they need supporting year-round too – not just in June for Pride month. Explore, shop and stand with them – or ask them about hosting your next PR event…
1. paperxclips, Belfast
Northern Ireland has a complicated history with LGBTQ+ equality – same-sex marriages were outlawed until 2019, while Ian Paisley’s “save Ulster from sodomy” crusades of the 1970s remain a painful memory. All of which makes paperxclips’ existence all the more essential. While it no longer offers haircuts (the ‘clips’ in its name), its Blackstaff Mill store is more than a bookshop: it’s a welcoming place to hang out over superb coffee too.
162 North St, Belfast BT1 1QS
Find out more about paperxclips
2. Paned o Gê, Cardiff
Housed within the Queer Emporium – a cluster of 18 LGBTQ+ venues in Cardiff’s Royal Arcade – this indie bookshop has been a safe space for the Welsh gay community since 2021. Alongside selling books in both Welsh and English, it hosts regular author readings too. Paned o Gê is currently fundraising for an electric van to be convert into a mobile bookshop that can travel around Wales. More details on its website below.
2 Royal Arcade, Cardiff CF10 1AE
Find out more about Paned o Gê
3. Category Is Books, Glasgow
Run by local couple Bug and Fin Duffy-Scott, this Southside bookstore has offered a well-curated collection of new and secondhand books, magazines, YA, albums, manga, graphic novels, zines, comics, badges and more since 2018. Events include yoga, queer tarot readings and a transgender-friendly pop-up barbershop, while Wednesdays are autism-friendly days, with white noise, dimmed lights and low conversation levels.
34 Allison St, Glasgow G42 8NN
Find out more about Category Is Books
4. The Bookish Type, Leeds
The owners of this wonderful bookstore not only have literary smarts aplenty (just ask for some stellar reading recommendations); they also lead Queer History Tours around Leeds exploring the LGBTIQA+ heritage of the West Yorkshire city. It’s an altruistic place too, with a ‘Pay It Forward’ scheme to ensure queer books are available to those who can’t afford them, plus ‘Second Hand Sundays’ where preloved queer books are sold to raise money for local LGBTIQA+ groups.
77a Great George Street, Leeds LS1 3BR
Find out more about the Bookish Type
5. Gay’s the Word, London
The UK’s first gay bookshop opened in 1979. Since then, it’s been a mainstay of gay life in the capital, despite having survived homophobic attacks, its stock seized on grounds of indecency in 1984 and a 2020 burglary when police caught the thieves after they chose to stay behind to drink prosecco left in the store. Having appeared in 2014 film Pride, today it hosts book launches, readings, signings and more from its location on boutiquey Marchmont Street.
66 Marchmont St, London WC1N 1AB
Find out more about Gay’s the Word
6. The Common Press, London
With two locations in the capital, The Common Press carries a rich library of books by underrepresented authors, as well as running an exhaustive programme of events from dance classes, yoga sessions to book clubs. Its Pride events include a Moomins celebration/film screening, a talk on the Linden Archive of 1990s’ LGBTQ+ photos, plus a ‘Queer Herbal Medicine: Blind Tea Tasting’ session.
The Common Press (Bethnal Green), 118 Bethnal Green Road, London, E2 6DG
The Common Press (Dalston), 97 Stoke Newington Road, London, N16 8BX
Find out more about The Common Press
7. Queer Lit, Manchester
The largest LGBTQ+ bookstore in Europe (4,500 titles-and-counting) which isn’t surprising given Manchester’s reputation as one of the continent’s most gay-friendly cities. Nestled between the Northern Quarter and Ancoats, its cosy downstairs area is ideal for curling up with a book over a coffee (or two).
27 Great Ancoats St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5AJ
Find out more about Queer Lit
8. The Old Queerosity Shop, Plymouth
The only gay bookshop in the southwest, The Old Queerosity Shop performs a vital function as a community hub and safe space for LBGTQIA+ members and allies in the region. The collection includes books about Polari (the secret slang used by gay people in the UK in the mid-20th century), while it also sells Pride merchandise too.
41 Bretonside, Plymouth, PL4 0BB
Find out more about The Old Queerosity Shop