London · Walking tour

Bloomsbury – Queer Literary London

Start in LGBT History UK →

The tour of ideas. Bloomsbury is the university quarter and the territory of the Bloomsbury Group, whose queer members invented much of modern British culture. It is also where Britain’s first gay bookshop opened in 1979 and survived a police raid, a riot and the internet – and where the oldest LGBT history in London, the Georgian molly houses, once stood. Quieter than Soho. Bring your reading list.

5 stops

• 1 Gay’s the Word Bookshop · 1979–present
• 2 Gordon Square – The Bloomsbury Group · 1900s–1930s
• 3 Field Lane – Mother Clap’s Molly House · 1720s
• 4 The British Museum – The Warren Cup · 5–15 AD
• 5 E.M. Forster’s London · 1879–1970

Part of LGBT History UK