Peter Dorey opened the Marchmont Street store with Ernest Hole and Jonathan Cutbill in 1979
19 February, 2021 â By Tom Foot
Peter Dorey, left, and co-founder Ernest Hole on the shopâs first day
TRIBUTES have been paid to Peter Dorey, one of the founders of the pioneering Gayâs The Word bookshop, after he passed away on Friday aged 73.
The store in Marchmont Street, Bloomsbury, is the oldest LGBT+ bookshop in the UK and had to survive spurious raids by the authorities in the 1980s.
Mr Dorey had opened the shop with Ernest Hole and Jonathan Cutbill in 1979.
Current staff members said that the âmoral courageâ of the founders âcannot be overstatedâ.
The Dorey and Gay s The Word families
February 18, 2021
Peter Dorey (left) with Ernest Hole. (Gay s the Word)
Peter Dorey, who co-founded London’s beloved LGBT+ bookshop Gay’s the Word, has died aged 73 at his home in Brighton, England. Here, his family and Gay’s the Word remember him.
In 1979, Peter was one of a small group of LGBT+ activists, including Ernest Hole and Jonathan Cutbill, who established a small, specialist bookshop on Marchmont Street, Bloomsbury.
Gay’s the Word was one of Britain’s first queer bookshops, opening when LGBT+ titles were generally not available in ordinary bookstores. Peter provided the very necessary funding for it.