20 May '07 - 20:01 Like A Tourist
18 Mar '06 - 12:38 A Captive Audience
Speaker's Corner is one of those London institutions that unfortunately have suffered from the Tourist bug. It is merely a faded shadow of what it originally must have been. In all the visits that I have made to this corner of Hyde Park, I've always come across the same old people. Like the gentleman pictured. You also start seeing 'how they do it'. Because they support each other. Look at this picture for instance. The man lying on the ground is an accomplice. He will heckle and be very loud and visible, simply to draw attention and pull in the crowd. He will then move on to the next 'collegue' before starting his own show. Streetperformers really, and not even good ones. Freak-show galore. If you see it once it's amusing hence a great tourist spot, but it loses it's appeal the second time round ...
15 Jan '06 - 18:23 London Icons
08 Jan '06 - 18:55 From The Archives
