Untitled Document

Historical pictures of LONDON Speakers' Corner

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Victor Zammit AND OTHER SPEAKERS at LONDON Speakers' Corner
Marble Arch, London Hyde Park, England and Sydney Speakers Domain Sydney Australia

Long before talkback radio and the internet, Speakers’ Corner in London and Sydney attracted many thousands of people every Sunday afternoon.

From the 1870’s until about 1985 Speakers’ Corner was a place where people shared new and sometimes radical ideas. It was an afternoon out- free entertainment, politics and education. Orators John Webster and Victor Zammit who both spoke in London Speakers Corner as well as Sydney Domain Speakers Corner in the 1970‘s held crowds of thousands spellbound with their brilliant oratory.

Sadly today (2010) London Speaker's corner is only a fraction of what it was and Sydney Speaker's Domain is virtually silent.

Victor Zammit orating at Speakers' Corner Sydney

List of pictures: Speakers' Corner at the Sydney Domain Park was a venue where speakers, orators and debaters assembled every Sunday afternoon for more than a hundred years from around 2pm until 5pm; it was almost identical to London's Speakers' Corner at Marble Arch, Hyde Park, London, England. On occassions Victor had his own platform at London Speakers' Corner.

(also) Oratory at London's Speakers' Corner - transcriptions: ... transcriptions

Victor Zammit is on record for consistently having the biggest crowds at these meetings. The record shows that in the history of public park speaking - at Speakers' Corner, only Victor Zammit and another English orator, J. Webster, were able to consistently hold huge crowds at the Sydney Speakers' Corner (Webster at Marble Arch, Hyde Park, London).

picture "A' At his wittiest and always with a huge crowd Victor Zammit entertaining his receptive crowd - Victor dealt with the hottest issues of the day - human rights, women's liberation, politics, religion, captialism, communism, mind liberation, the paranormal, psychic powers in espionage, skepticism ... and more. 'Sandwiched between the tears and the laughter, Victor's powerful messages came down like thunder in the hearts and the minds of the unaware.'

picture "C" John Webster, master orator at his best at Speakers' Corner, Sydney.

picture "D" Strong radical female orators spreading their revolutionary politcs at Speakers' Corner London's Marble Arch, Hyde Park.

picture "E" Another historical picture: Sister Ada singing hymns to save sinners at Sydney's Speakers' Corner.

picture 6 On occasions mainstream media attended Victor's meeting to report some of the hottest issues.

picture 17 Lord Soper, the Christian radical Reverend: one of the greatest orators of all time at London's Speakers' Corner for fifty five years..

picture 20 The Israelis articulate their legitimate argument at London's Speakers Corner.

picture 15 (b) British police regularly keep an eye on what is happening at Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park, London.

picture 21 The Catholic Guild at Speakers' Corner in London promoting thier doctrines.

picture 9

Victor Zammit addressing another regular, huge weekly crowd (what you see is about a third of the crowd in the photo) during the latter time of the Vietnam war..

picture 24 Objector not wanting to pay tax - Speakers' Corner London 2004.

picture 29 Speaker at London's Speakers' Corner on religion.

picture 30 another speaker trying to persuade the public of his intellectual product.

picture 26 More evocative speaking at Speakers' Corner, Marble Arch, Hyde Park, London.

picture 18 Webster a great orator who was able to get large crowds at Speakers Corner London and Sydney -1965-85

pircture 31 A Catholic priest debating speaker Charlie King - on the stand - about atheism at Sydney's Speakers' Corner, the Domain Park.

picture 32 The doomsday personality: picture shows a doomsdayer predicting the THE END IS NEAR!

picture 33 Armed police at Speakers Corner - always keep order at these occasionaly troublesome meetings.

picture 34 Bible preacher whipping up great emotion at Speakers' Corner.

picture 4 One of Victor Zammit's largest crowds and probably a record crowd for the Sydney Speakers' Corner at the Domain Park- sometimes Victor had up to two thousand attending these open air meetings.

picture 35 Historical photo at Speakers' Corner 1930's Sydney- a Mr Kay witha serious message about 'individual effort.'.

picture 36 Picture shows the Christadelphians in action at Speakers' Corner, London's Hyde Park

picture 42 Speaker on the Islamic religion, Speakers' Corner, London's Hyde Park

picture 43 an orator on current affairs at London's Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park.

picture 44 Historical photo: Speaker at Sydney's Speakers' Corner praising Hitler in 1939 -(researched)- Sydney.

picture 45 Victor putting his crowd into a relaxing mood to get his message across - having used humour to remove the brick wall of resistence.

picture 46 Bible preacher shaking hands to make friends ...

picture 47 Victor at London's Speakers' Corner - many, many years ago!

picture 48 At London's Speaker Corner - current affairs speaker.

picture 49 Christ Died for the Ungodly - says the placard - it says it all!

pictur 50 Bowler Hat speaker at London's Speakers' Corner - where else?

picture 13 More entertainment - a combination of politics, human rights and women's liberation - early seventies.

picture 25 The Socialists try to get a crowd in London - but very few people bothered after 1987 - the collapse of the Soviet Union.

picture 23 Victor defending Medicare, Australia's national health care program.

More pics of Victor at Speakers' Corner

picture 1 Victor Zammit chairing a meeting for John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia for 11 years, at the Wayside Theatre. Victor Zammit first met John Howard at the Mosman Professional Debates (conducted on Westminster Parliamentary style) - where John Howard supported and was a regular guest debater in the early 70's.

picture 2 Victor Zammmit (pictured, shown sitting at right) debates brilliant attorney/politician John Dowd, Attorney General, Leader of the State Conservative Party (later Supreme Court judge and now Chancellor of Bond Univeristy) in the second of the three debates on the motion: That Australia Should Have a Bill of Rights.

picture 3 Victor Zammit in Hyde Park London- - some years ago, circa 2002 - as a guest speaker of the Human Rights Group.

picture 5 Another regular huge crowd listening to Victor at the Sydney Speakers' Corner at the Domain.

picture 7 Victor Zammit addressing another huge crowd at Speakers' Corner in Sydney.

picture 8 Victor Zammit in a serious mood orating. Victor's partner, Wendy (in pigtails) is on the left of Victor's stand.

picture 10 More fiery oratory from Victor Zammit at a time when the Vietnam war and the stage musical HAIR were on.

picture 11 The historical Sydney Speakers' Corner at the Domain during the turbulent years of the Vietnam war; photo shows Victor Zammit in 1971. Notice armed police with two way radio. Police have been attending these Speakers' Corner meetings for over 100 years. Photo taken from the book THE DOMAIN SPEAKER.

picture 12 More controversial oratory at Speakers' Corner. That young looking girl in plaits on the left of Victor's stand is his partner Wendy.

picture 14. Front cover book The Domain Speaker - transcripts from great times at Speakers' Corner.

picture 15 Victor still attracting big crowds at London's Speakers' Corner on a one-off Sunday afternoon meeting in 2002.

picture 16 Victor getting closer to the crowd at Speakers' Corner Hyde Park London 2004

picture 19 Victor Zammit dealing with hecklers at Speakers' Corner.

picture 22 American hostage crisis in Iran: Victor whips up a great deal of emotions outside the US Consulate in Sydney January 1980.Victor organized these pro-American meetings which led to wide media coverage and debate.

picture 27 Victor Zammit dealing with hecklers at Speakers' Corner.

picture 28 students' enthusiastic suppport for Speakers' Corner at the University of New South Wales on the library lawn meetings organized by Victor during lunchtime.

picture 28 (b) lunchtime meetings discussing the current political, social, academic, intellectual issues of the day were very popular at these Univesity lunchtime meetings which were organized by Victor Zammit. At times senior politicians addressed the students. One favorite senior politician with the university students was former Customs Minister (Secretary) Don Chipp.

Email Victor Zammit: vz@victorzammit.com Website: http://www.victorzammit.com
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