THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN SPEAK FREELY IS IN SPEAKER'S CORNER, HYDE PARK, LONDON, BRITAIN.

Two subjects are off limits: the British Royal Family and the overthrow of the British government.

Public riots broke out in the park in 1855, in protest over the Sunday Trading Bill which forbade buying and selling on a Sunday which was, at that time, the only day working people had off.

The riots for democratic reform encouraged some to force issue of the "right to speak" in Hyde Park. In 1872 the Royal Parks and Garden's Act delegated the issue of permitting public meetings to the Park Authorities (rather than central government). Contrary to popular belief it does not confer a statutory basis for the right to speak at Speakers' Corner. Parliamentary debates on the act illustrate that a general principle of being able to meet and speak was not the intention, but that some areas would be permitted to be used for that purpose. Since that time it has become a traditional site for public speeches and debate as well as the main site of protest and assembly in Britain. There are some who contend that the tradition has a connection with the older Tyburn hanging gallows where the condemned man was allowed to speak his last words.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/298710453

AMERICA WAS FOUNDED BY PEOPLE WHO DON'T NEED STINKING MONARCHY. I'M NO ONE'S SUBJECT.

THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN SPEAK FREELY IS IN SPEAKER'S CORNER, HYDE PARK, LONDON, BRITAIN.

Two subjects are off limits: the British Royal Family and the overthrow of the British government.

Public riots broke out in the park in 1855, in protest over the Sunday Trading Bill which forbade buying and selling on a Sunday which was, at that time, the only day working people had off.

The riots for democratic reform encouraged some to force issue of the "right to speak" in Hyde Park. In 1872 the Royal Parks and Garden's Act delegated the issue of permitting public meetings to the Park Authorities (rather than central government). Contrary to popular belief it does not confer a statutory basis for the right to speak at Speakers' Corner. Parliamentary debates on the act illustrate that a general principle of being able to meet and speak was not the intention, but that some areas would be permitted to be used for that purpose. Since that time it has become a traditional site for public speeches and debate as well as the main site of protest and assembly in Britain. There are some who contend that the tradition has a connection with the older Tyburn hanging gallows where the condemned man was allowed to speak his last words.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/298710453

AMERICA WAS FOUNDED BY PEOPLE WHO DON'T NEED STINKING MONARCHY. I'M NO ONE'S SUBJECT.