Get off your soapboax!!! (Speaker's Corner (Hyde Park))

Member Name: salgirl

Product:	Speaker's Corner (Hyde Park)
Date:	20/06/01 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free Speech

Disadvantages: Only on a Sunday

Hyde Park is actually a fascinating place (cue trivial pursuit type facts).

Did you know that at the beginning of the 19th century, London ended at Hyde Park Corner and the countryside began?

And Apsley House situated here, home to the Duke of Wellington, was known as No. 1 London?

And that many of the distances to Englands towns were measured from the Hyde Park Corner?

AND if you walk up Park Lane towards Marble Arch - which by the way was the original gateway to Buckingham Palace built by John Nash and moved to it's present site in 1851 because it was too small to fit some of the carriages through - you'll be passing by Rotten Row, which was actually called 'Route de Roi'? (Rotten Row is a mile of sandy track reserved for horse-riders).

And you're thinking, My God, doesn't this woman ever shut up?? The answer is no. Not because I'm a gobby female, but because I've placed myself on a soapbox in my cyberspace version of Speakers Corner, and I'm allowed to ramble on and on about any given subject I like. I might want to talk about Protein being the 8th deadly sin; or pose the question, are smokers being persecuted unfairly? Or promoting vegetarianism, or advocating the use of Euthenasia, or pick on one of it's most famous subjects, the issue of nucleur disarmament.

There are, however, some rules:

1. You can only do this on Sunday mornings.

2. You must not blaspheme.

3. You must not use obscene language (bang goes my chance of berating the West Ham Board of Directors for the incompetence).

4. You must not incite racial hatred.

5. You must not bring about a breach of the peace.

The standing on a soap box these days is traditional as well as necessary for people to be able to see you. It isn't however an abiding rule, like it used to be, when the act of standing on a box freed you from the laws that bound the country bac
k in the 1870's when this all started.

If you go along to be a spectator, prepare to be harangued by the speakers. Most of them are seasoned arguers who don't just talk about their issues, they can really rant when they get going. Obviously, some of the subjects may be boring, but hang in there for a while and you can really get some doosies! Their issues may be bizarre but it's good to hear what other people think, even if Baked Beans are seen as a deadly temptress by the bloke with the sandwich board going on about the evils of protein. I admire the passion, not matter how misplaced I perceive it to be.

So there you have it. Speakers Corner at the north-eastern edge of Hyde Park. Near Marble Arch. Which is close to the Edgware Road and Bayswater.. and ooooh.. did you know that on a traffic island near the junction of these two roads, there is a plaque which marks the spot of the Tyburn Tree? The place where all hangings were carried out?.. It's not that far from Tyburn Convent actually. A lovely little place....

Okay, okay, I'm getting off now... you don't have to shove...

Summary: