Just a week after opening, Chick-fil-A announces closure of its 1st U.K. restaurant

A Chick-fil-A restaurant.
(Image credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Those fried chicken and pickle sandwiches will have to come from somewhere else, as Chick-fil-A's first location in the United Kingdom will shut its doors early next year when its six-month lease is up.

Chick-fil-A, which has 2,400 U.S. locations, opened shop at the Oracle Mall in Reading on Oct. 10, and almost immediately, LGBTQ activists called for a boycott. The company has donated to organizations that aim to reverse LGBTQ rights and are against same-sex marriage, and in a statement, the advocacy group Reading Pride said the chain's "ethos and moral stance goes completely against our values, and that of the U.K., as we are a progressive country that has legalized same-sex marriage for some years, and continues to strive toward equality."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.