Speakers ' Corner is often held up to demonstrate freedom of speech , as anyone can turn up unannounced and talk on almost any subject , although always at the risk of being heckled by regulars . The corner was frequented by Karl Marx , Vladimir Lenin , George Orwell , C. L. R. James , Walter Rodney , Ben Tillett , Marcus Garvey , Kwame Nkrumah , and William Morris . . In June 1972 three men Joseph Callinan , Louis Marcantonio and Thomas Quinn , all Irish republican activists , were arrested and charged under the Treason Felony Act 1848 which saw them face the prospect of life imprisonment . They also faced numerous other charges including conspiring to fight against Her Majesty 's forces and incitement . The three had given inflammatory speeches at Speakers ' Corner in response to the shooting dead of 13 civil rights demonstrators in Derry by the British Military in an event known as Bloody Sunday . Most of the charges were eventually dropped and the three were convicted of seditious utterances and given sentences of between nine and eighteen months in prison
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Speakers' Corner