Speakers Corner

The north-eastern corner of Hyde Park near Marble Arch is where Londoners practise free speech in the open air, generally on Sunday afternoons. On a fine day in summer there will be some ten to twenty speakers mounted on portable platforms and haranguing the crowds on numerous subjects, but mainly politics and religion. There are eccentrics, radicals of every hue, exhibitionists, the inevitable Communists, and often some very gifted gospel preachers. In fact, it is not unusual for Christian speakers to outnumber all the others. This is the modern-day version of Paul’s Cross, and it is well worth an hour to hear some of these Bible veterans defending Christian truth in the face of incredible invective and abuse.