Our son really enjoyed his Sunday visit to Hyde Park and lingered for an hour or so at the Speaker’s Corner. Neither my husband nor I have been to Hyde Park, so we were eager to hear what he had to say about Speakers’ Corner in particular. He was amused no end by the religiously fanatic, stripe-suited guy he took several photos of while the fellow harangued the crowd of passers-by who were just enjoying the unseasonably warm Guy Fawkes November weekend in this extraordinarily large park (619 acres including Kensington Gardens). The guy was just doing the expected, exerting his freedom of speech -- in his case, to warn of impending doom to unbelievers. The photos don’t show it, but the speaker and his buddy, also cowboy-hatted, but in red, not beige, had the name "Jesus" running through the lined patterns of their outfits! Apparently they felt it takes showmanship to attract attention at the famed Corner. Our son never figured out what sect the fellow was touting, but no matter. Like others that day, he strolled around after he left the Corner, and marveled at the crowds around the beautiful Serpentine, a large, manmade lake.
This park’s acreage was once owned by monasteries, and was appropriated by Henry VIII who liked to hunt within it. Charles II decided to spiff it up and make it into a socially "in" spot for aristocrats to show off their "stuff," --apparel, horses, carriages. Thus, the King’s Road, "route du roi," evolved into "Rotten Row," in the marvelous way many British place names have of sounding extraordinarily common. Hyde’s neighborhood is certainly royal and rarefied, near THE Palace Buckingham, and Kensington Palace, and just west away from the likes of commercial Piccadilly and off beat Soho that our son later explored in a quest for Sunday sushi.
A lover of alternative byways, he liked Soho’s varied ethnic scene and found a reasonably priced sushi bar where he chatted with some locals. Yo! Sushi at 52 Poland Street is one of a chain with a techno twist: food comes to you on a conveyor belt on plates color-coded to indicate price, from 1.5 pounds to 3.5 pounds. When finished, the customer pushes a button for a "waiter" who tallies the bill. Our picky-about-sushi son liked the tech atmosphere and mingling with locals, but rated the food as nothing special. Soho has become associated for some time with alternative lifestyles and night life, just as Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner has become synonymous with individual freedom of speech; both areas offer visitors glimpses of the immense variety of peoples that are the Londoners of today.
Much of the varied ethnic scene in this great big city can be explored just by walking through this famed park, especially when the weather is fine. London’s Soho has special appeal for those who enjoy Asian cuisine. This cosmopolitan city treasures the old, venerating its powerful history, but moves forward to embrace global influences.