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Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park London
Speakers’ Corner was itself born out the struggle for civil liberties in Victorian Britain and its establishment was a significant milestone in the development of our democratic institutions.
It occupies a part of Hyde Park where, in the mid-nineteenth century, the Chartists held mass protests against the suppression of the rights of working people, including the right of assembly, and the Reform League organised huge rallies to demand the widening of the franchise.
The Times, reflecting the unease of the establishment of the day, declared after one such demonstration that “it is against all reason and all justice that motley crowds from all parts of the metropolis should take possession of Hyde Park, and interfere with the enjoyments of those to whom the Park more particularly belongs”. But, reporting on the same event, the radical Reynolds’ Newspaper of 29 July 1866 declared exultantly that despite the attempts of the police and troops to prevent them, “the people have triumphed, in so far as they have vindicated their right to meet, speak, resolve, and exhort in Hyde Park.”
I spent a couple of hours at Speaker's Corner when I was London about a decade ago. It was pretty entertaining. Now there are Speaker's Corners all over the world, but sadly not in the United States that I'm aware of. Although the Occupy Movement comes very close.
TOP COMMENTS
October 8, 2012
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TOP PHOTOS
October 7, 2012
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