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For over 150 years,
Speaker's Corner has been one of London's
most unique and eccentric attractions. On
any given Sunday morning, anyone who has
an opinion to air and anyone who will listen
will gather at the point where Oxford Street
and Hyde Park meet, in the shadows of Marble
Arch and carry on an oral tradition that
is becoming somewhat lost to a modern culture
of email and online chat rooms.
A visit to Speaker's
Corner will offer you a glimpse of London's
real past, where Londoners engage in earnest,
open conversations that can quickly become
loud and contentious debates. There's no
parliamentary procedure here, it's freewheeling
verbal contact and if you have a mind to,
you're free to take part. Tourists can often
be seen entering into heated discussion
with locals and other visitors alike. Speakers
require no qualification or invitation.
It is as open a forum as you are likely
to see anywhere in the world, a classless
forum where one can really see grassroots
democracy at work.
Topics for debate
are in no way preordained, but they will
tend towards the more provocative subjects
of politics, religion, morality and current
events, which in turn attracts some of London's
more colourful and flamboyant figures.
On a typical spring
morning, walking around from huddle to huddle,
you will hear discussions on everything
from the state of declining moral standards
in the world to football. As on any Sunday,
a Christian contingent will be well represented
among the speakers. Some of the more extremist
denominations cause obvious discord among
the crowds and can make for some of the
more memorable sights at the corner as they
verbally battle the hecklers.
At first glance, some
of the orators may appear to be more a congregation
of the mentally unhinged rather than a meeting
of the minds. But don't be fooled. Some
of the most revered political and literary
minds of the last century have regarded
Speaker's Corner as a window on the ebb
and flow of popular opinion, a microcosm
of the populous.
Among the noted patrons
are Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, George Orwell,
William Morris and countless politicians
to date. Indeed the tradition is echoed
even today in the 'soapbox' method of canvassing
in modern political campaigns. This is a
tradition that has now become truly global,
as similar events are now organised all
over the world. This is still however, one
of the most authentic and accessible experiences
that any visitor to London could hope for.
So, if the weather is fine, the speakers
are on form and you can loose your inhibitions,
Speaker's Corner holds hours of irresistible
captivation.
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This
is Stuart McElwaine, you will
find Stuart at speakers comer
most Sundays offering Free Hugs.
We have set up a page especially
for Free Hugs London.
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