AS PART OF a British parliamentary Act of 1872, following decades of civil disobedience and unrest ~ not without justifiable cause ~ provision was made for a "designated area" where virtually anyone could 'sound off'.

That small area was in the north-eastern extremity of London's large, fairly central Hyde Park ~ one of a number of a number of 'Royal Parks'.

Some spurious claims about great personages of the political Left have been made and assumed through repetition to be so: 'Lenin', for example, did VISIT the Corner (with his sister) and they spoke with what today would be called a 'born-again preacher'. Lenin's sister seems to have done the talking ~ possibly because her English was better than that of her notorious brother. But ...it can hardly be claimed that Lenin was an orator at Speakers' Corner!

All kinds of movements, philosophies, faiths and viewpoints have been expressed there, and (it would be charitable to say) with passion.

"I too am interested in revolution," says HUE, "But not the violent overthrow of any imagined 'authority'. No: I go there to try and help (in my tiny way) with a revolution in Consciousness."