Speakers’ Corner — Listen to speeches on Sunday

Where?

Speakers’ Corner, Northeast corner of Hyde Park (by Marble Arch)

When?

The best time to go is usually around 12 noon on a Sunday, but speakers can turn-up whenever they like. It's possible that you may end up seeing nothing at all

Tickets?

Free to watch (it's free to take part as well!)

Parking:

Nearby car parks

Buses:

2, 6, 7, 10, 16, 23, 30, 36, 73, 74, 82, 94, 98, 113, 137, 148, 159, 274, 390, 414, 436

Bus fares

Trains:

The closest station is Marble Arch Central

Train fares

Craig’s review… If you want to hear some speeches at Speakers' Corner then the best time to go is Sunday lunchtime. I turned up at 10 AM this morning and there was absolutely nobody there. Not a soul. It was just me and a bloke cycling his bike over the grass. Then I went back at 11 AM and it was just me and two women walking their dogs. I was soaking wet by this time so I nearly went home, but I had a little stroll down Oxford Street and then trudged back at noon and thankfully it was starting to fill up by then.

So my advice to you is this: go at 12 noon on a Sunday, because there will be nobody around otherwise. The anarchists and agitators all work during the week, you see, so political rallies are reserved for the weekend over here. That's how we like to do things in England. In a civilised nation like ours we rage against the government for a few hours at the weekend and then we're all back at home in time for Songs of Praise and a bath before bedtime.

Most of the crowd come here for a laugh and a bit of entertainment because they're here to enjoy the hecklers and a bit of back and forth banter – it's supposed to be fun. But some of the orators take it very seriously indeed. It's not enough for them to be speaking, they actually want to be heard.

I'm guessing that they must be brand-new to this because that's not how we do things in London. People don't come here to listen – they come here to disagree. The old-timers know this, so they always engage with the crowd and ask them plenty of questions to encourage a bit of debate, but these newbies are expecting total silence (some of them are even demanding it!). In their heads they're about to whip us up into a frenzied rapture and lead a march on Parliament.

The biggest crowd today is gathered around a Muslim cleric and let's just say that he isn't exactly a fan of the West. But this is why Speakers' Corner is so great because you can't stand here and spout a load of anti-Western claptrap and not expect to get a bit of anger back so he's being taken to task by a bouncy, bubbly, chubby mountain of a ma'am, probably a Jamaican dinner lady or something like that, who's used to keeping fifty kids in line at dinner time, and she's shouting him down with finger jabs and foot stamps. But it's not fazing him one little bit. This guy won't be silenced. When it comes to politics and religion there's no convincing anybody, is there? You believe what you believe, and that's the end of it.

The Christian guy next-door has a much more positive message: "The beginning is nigh!" Not the end is nigh, you will notice – but the beginning. But the beginning of what? I suppose it might be the beginning of the end.

The Christian guy next-door to that Christian guy is singing hymns whilst his dutiful daughter stands there as good as gold, turning over the song sheets for her daddy.

Now I'm listening to a guy who hates capitalists, bankers, politicians, the Royal Family... pretty much everybody in authority who's better off than him. He wants to kick the King out of Buckingham Palace (or drag him out, if necessary) and let the homeless live there instead. There are so many rooms in the palace, he says, that we could solve London's homeless problem overnight. There's a very lively heckler butting in every ten-seconds, trying to drown him out, but his jokes are pretty lousy. This guy doesn't have a lot of wit. But the sheer relentlessness of his heckles does eventually become quite amusing.

This is partly why Speakers' Corner so entertaining because everybody is entitled to speak. The speaker is obviously an old pro at doing this kind of thing and doesn't mind being heckled at all – in fact, he's even engaging the heckler in his dopey views. And whilst the heckler is obviously an idiot, nobody in the crowd is getting angry about it – they're just playing along with him, sometimes taking issue with his jokes, but most of the time just focusing on the speaker.

The best bit was when a scruffy dude wandered into the arena clutching a bottle of beer and spoke more sense in ten seconds than the speaker did in ten minutes. He totally took over the floor with his drunken banter and had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.

He dismantled the speaker and would have dismantled his stepladder as well, if the speaker hadn't been standing on it. Then he just wandered off again.

So did I learn anything? Nope. But it was nice to see a lively and vocal debate going on in the park without anyone getting angry.

Worth a visit? ★☆☆Value for money? freeGood for kids? ☆☆☆Easy to get to? ★★★

I also recommend… If you enjoy Speakers’ Corner then you might like to visit Marble Arch (you can walk it in less than 2 mins). If you enjoy watching political debates then why not try the real thing at the Houses of Commons, Mayor's Question Time and Prime Minister's Questions?

The author Craig Cross owns city-guide.london and has spent the last decade reviewing the capital’s landmarks, attractions and hotels. His guidebook London Squire is available from Amazon

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