What's "Hyde Park" in English?

24.03.06, 14:08
According to one of the Polish tabloids, a Hyde Park was created in the
centre of Minsk yesterday.
Most of us associate the words "Hyde Park" with squirrels, trees and people
sitting on benches smoking joints or eating sandwiches, but to the Polish
gutter press it's "a place where anyone can exchange ideas".

On Monday I heard two men arguing about politics on the bus, so I think the
English equivalent of the Polish expression "Hyde Park" must be "bus".
    • jot-23 Re: What's "Hyde Park" in English? 24.03.06, 16:28
      you haven't ever heard of "speaker's corner"?
      • ianek70 Re: What's "Hyde Park" in English? 24.03.06, 16:40
        jot-23 napisał:

        > you haven't ever heard of "speaker's corner"?

        Yes, I have.
        It's a tree in Hyde Park. In the 19th century communists and drunks would stand
        there and shout about Jesus and royalty, because it was in the middle of a big
        park and so they could see the police coming. But now there is freedom of
        speech in all British parks, pubs and bookmakers. Also supermarkets and, to
        some extent, parliament.
        But Hyde Park is basically just a park, and it's only Polish journalists that
        associate it with free speech rather than squirrels.
        • usenetposts Re: What's "Hyde Park" in English? 24.03.06, 23:06
          Speakers' corner (note correct placement of the apostrophe for the genitive
          plural) is a term for several locations within various public parks in London
          where free speech was permitted. The most famous one is the speakers' corner in
          Hyde Park, but it is only one of many in London, and it was a Victorian
          institution, coming into fashion now in Poland because the UK was at the stage
          regarding liberty in the nineteenth century that Poland is now. But of course
          it's all come a long way down hill since then.

          The article on speaker's corners within Wikipedia would be very telling if
          people in thuis country would only bother to read it and inform themselves.

          From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakers_corner :

          "The existence of a specific location where free speech is permitted is used as
          an excuse by the authorities to prohibit free speech in most public spaces in
          London, including the rest of Hyde Park and all other Royal Parks, where free
          speech is explicitly forbidden in written by-laws."

          In this case we see that those who say a Hyde Park was opened up in the middle
          of Minsk are truer than they know: we saw all the evidence of that when the 300
          demonstrators were bundled off to prison in armored lorries. Evidently they
          didn't have f.e.d.m of .p.ch either.
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