UNITED KINGDOM – Gay’s The Word, London’s famous gay bookshop has been attacked by vandals. Staff arrived at the store, located in Marchmont Street, west central London, to find the front window smashed and the shopfront covered with broken eggs.
Assistant manager Uli Lenart told PinkNews that witnesses reported seeing a group of youths “rampaging” up and down the street at around 12.30 a.m. and throwing eggs at another store.
He said the gang, who were on bicycles, left the scene and reappeared ten minutes later with a rock and a bottle, which they threw through the store’s front window before running off.
Lenart confirmed that the store itself was not raided and that no other stores in the area had been damaged. Pink News reported Lenart as saying, “They were apparently laughing their heads off as they smashed the window. One can’t jump to conclusions but the facts are there. We are just relieved that the rock wasn’t followed by a match.”
Police are investigating the incident.
Gay’s The Word is the only specifically lesbian and gay bookstore in the U.K. 2011 marks the 32nd anniversary of the founding of the store, which first opened its doors on Jan. 1, 1979.
