Street orators and soapbox ranters

[Steve Booth]

Philip Sansom

Regulars included SPeegyGeeBees, who worked in relay, a clever anarchist, whose name I've forgotten, who was strongly opposed to work, Lord Soper, the Methodist, already an old man, who spoke from the top of a very long step ladder (and was once heckled by my mad nunning aunt), communists of different sorts and various exotic religious nuts.

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Think I know the one you mean, but can't remember his name. Some acquaintances of his from the Rationalist Press Association also used to speak and distribute pamphlets, one of which was titled 'Bible Absurdities' and was written in a funny tone of mock exasperation: "Even children don't believe people can turn into pillars of salt" etc etc.

I think the anarchist you mention here was Philip Sansom. He was associated with Freedom Press, I think. Was the Rationalist Press man Nicholas Walter?

 

[JHE]

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I think the anarchist you mention here was Philip Sansom.

If the Philip Sansom you mean is the one with a biography on Wikipedia, he cannot have been the anarchist I remember. The one on Wiki was born in 1916, apparently, so he would have be in his early sixties at the time I'm thinking of in the late 70s. The man I remember was not that old. He was 30 or 40, I'd guess.

 

[d.a.s.h]

Pretty sure it wasn't Sansom. And don't recall seeing Nicolas Walter among the ranks of the Rationalist Press stalwarts who used to turn up at Speakers Corner.

Heard some funny stories recently about past speakers in the 1970s. One was a man from the Gay Liberation Front, a charismatic speaker who adopted the strategy of extolling the virtues of being gay i.e. lots of no-strings sex. This he described in some detail to the audience. "He makes it sound really good!" some of the straight male onlookers were heard to remark in wonderment.

The GLF man and his friends also staged a stunt at Speakers Corner involving an enormous dope cake in the shape of a phallus. The cake was put in a large bag and smuggled in past the police, to be revealed on the soapbox with a dramatic flourish: "I present to you . . . a sacrament!" Needless to say by the time the police had worked their way forward for a closer look, only crumbs remained.

 

[d.a.s.h]

No he defintely used to speak .He chanted through his programme .

You mean he chanted pretty much what was on the placards and sandwich boards?

 

[dennisr]

I know Heiko Khoo personally but I haven't seen him since I moved to Thailand . He ran an inernet club in near Oval for some time.

He's still around - living mainly in Berlin from what I gather.

Which reminds me of one of his other public speaking exploits - off to the DDR just before the fall of the wall he ignored advice to keep a low-profile and quietly visit contacts to start giving a speech in the main Berlin shopping centre - about the failures of the DDR dictatorship, stalinism etc (he speaks perfect German as well as plenty of other languages) - kept going despite the shirt being ripped off of his back from what I hear ))

Despite being a wee fella, he's hard to stop in full flow

 

[butchersapron]

Audio from/about speakers corner - including some Heiko Khoo.

 

[Steve Booth]

If the Philip Sansom you mean is the one with a biography on Wikipedia, he cannot have been the anarchist I remember. The one on Wiki was born in 1916, apparently, so he would have be in his early sixties at the time I'm thinking of in the late 70s. The man I remember was not that old. He was 30 or 40, I'd guess.

There was another man, I think he was a doctor, called John Hewetson, but I don't know when he was born. But maybe the man you saw was none of these.

 

[Bakunin]

The GLF man and his friends also staged a stunt at Speakers Corner involving an enormous dope cake in the shape of a phallus. The cake was put in a large bag and smuggled in past the police, to be revealed on the soapbox with a dramatic flourish: "I present to you . . . a sacrament!" Needless to say by the time the police had worked their way forward for a closer look, only crumbs remained.

Quality.

 

[chico enrico]

There was another man, I think he was a doctor, called John Hewetson, but I don't know when he was born. But maybe the man you saw was none of these.

Ah, Doctor Sphincter.

 

[Al Kahul]

what about Lurch (mathew palmer) Toad (micheal wooley) Peter Bhalla the stalinist.Charlotte the venreable Lesbian campaigner.Martin Besserman.

 

[d.a.s.h]

There was another man, I think he was a doctor, called John Hewetson,

Probably was Hewetson, he had quick tongue when it came to dealing with hecklers and could be witty.

Am trying to remember any soapbox speakers of the Right and far Right, but can't think of many names.

The NF and BNP paper sellers that used to hang around at the top of Brick Lane had their own distinct paper-selling cries - one of them would call out 'Stop the muggings!' over and over again. But they didn't hold forth beyond that.

The NF's leading man in Hoxton in East London was Derrick Day, and he used to address street meetings there. Some of these marked the end points of the smaller-scale marches the NF occasionally held in that district. Footage of Derrick Day holding forth at an NF rally can be seen in the Clash film 'Rude Boy': . . . and you say we don't know what to do? Well, we will with you lot, when we get to power.

Once saw Pastor Jack Glass, the 'Scottish Ian Paisley', hold forth to a group of his followers in the south side of Glasgow. Despite his obvious crankiness, Glass did seem formidable, with a sharp-featured face suggesting a quick intellect and energetic movements.

(Glass also produced a curious magazine called the Scottish Protestant View (iirc), which surprisingly looked like a punk fanzine, with collages of pictures cut or torn out of newspapers and handwritten invective scrawled alongside them.)

 

[xenon]

They've all got blogs now.