Founder of iconic bookshop Gay’s The Word, which featured in Pride and Killing Eve, has died aged 73.The true story of Brixton man Alex Wheatle.She opened up the gay bar - called Pearl's Shebeen - around 1977, though exact dates are hard to confirm.ġ977 London was not as accepting as today’s society, which is why the bar, also called a 'shebeen', was kept secret, but that didn’t make it any less popular among the LGBTQ+ community. Pearl arrived in the UK in 1958 as part of the Windrush generation, taking 12 years to save up the £1,000 needed to open up her shop in Brixton. After The George pub was destroyed in the riots, the South London Press noted that it was “undoubtedly an act of revenge for years of racial discrimination' (Image: SSPL/Getty Images)
