A bookshop and cafe in East London, seen as a “haven” for the LGBTQ+ community, has launched a fund-raiser to help the venue to keep going. 

The Common Press bookshop, in Shoreditch, has seen an “absolutely overwhelming” amount of support since launching its crowd-funder on Tuesday (13 August), and has already raised more than £8,000 ($10,300) of its £100,000 ($129,000) target.

The bookshop and cafe, which hosts LGBTQ+ events, launched the fund-raiser as the venue transitions to a Community Interest Company (CIC), a special type of business which exists to benefit a community, rather than private shareholders. 

“It’s really important to have spaces not just focused on nightlife,” director Aisha Shaibu-Lenoir told PinkNews.

“We have a range of events during the evening, and we love them… but there are very few spaces where we can feel we belong during the day, where families can come in, where queer people of colour can come in, where trans people can come in. 

“There aren’t a lot of other spaces that truly focus on being very intersectional and being very conscious about giving space and prioritising space for people [who] don’t often have that.”

The bookshop tends to attract “queer women, trans people, people who are neurodiverse, people who have been marginalised in different ways”, and The Common Press is a “space that prioritises coming together and building communities”, she added. 

“Often, when people come in, they find somebody who’s like-minded sitting next to them having coffee, and they can collaborate, they can come together. It gives you hope that anything is possible.”