Original date of post: December 8, 2013. As per usual, minor changes have been made.
Alright, readers. This blog post is going to prominently feature capital punishment-namely, that of the noose-and-gallows variety. So be ready to highlight some white text if you plan on…hanging around. *rimshot*
…Wow, that was bad. Please excuse my nasty sense of…gallows humor. *rimshot*
Ack, I’m sorry for being so knotty! I promise that I’ve got good noose! Gibbet?
*gunshot*
O…OK, I promise I’ll stop now. Anyway, you have been warned!
Anyhoo, this weekend has been going quite well for me. I finished up my final paper for theater class (and the program in general!) and my finals are looking manageable. I’ve made arrangements to go to the airport and even packing doesn’t look like it’ll be too much of a hassle. As such, I decided to relax a bit this afternoon and head on over to Hyde Park with my comrade T. Our primary objective for the day was to observe one of London’s most peculiar traditions, orators speaking at Speakers’ Corner! Every Sunday, at around 12:30, people from all across the London area gather at this little space and will deliver loud and incendiary speeches about politics and religion. Today was no exception, for when T and I entered the park, there was a full-scale argument going on between a Christian preacher and a militant person who believed that all religions are the work of Satan. Both parties were constantly referring to each other as being possessed by demons and an American in a cowboy hat embroidered with a gold cross joined the fray, using a rubber chicken and a loud whistle to great effect. It was…quite the sight to behold. In all honest, this display of religious fervor was much more intense than anything I had seen in the United States (outside of the movie Jesus Camp).
After that…theological discussion, T and I scoured out the other main point of interest in Hyde Park (for me, at any rate): Tyburn, the final stop on my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage!
Observant readers of this blog (or at least ones who read my first post four months ago) may remember that I mentioned the Tyburn Tree, but only teased about what it was. Well, as this blog comes closer to an end, here is the answer (in all its white glory): Tyburn was a suburb of the City of London that was a major place of execution. The main gallows of the London area was the Tyburn Tree, a specially built triangular gallows that could be used to hang twenty-four convicts at once. During the European Renaissance and Georgian Period, dozens of men and women throughout London were taken here and forced to dance the Tyburn jig, as it were. These ranged from legitimate monsters, such as Jonathan Wild, and (supposedly) loveable rogues, such as Jack Sheppard, to Catholics convicted of heresy and poor working-class souls convicted of what would be considered petit larceny today. The public hangings were always huge spectacles that attracted large crowds, especially during the procession from Newgate Gaol to Tyburn, where the cart carrying the condemned would stop at several pubs along the way. By the time most convicts reached the Triple Tree, they were drunk off their @$$es (still, many of them gave impressive last speeches to the spectators, leading to the tradition of Speakers’ Corner in this area). Eventually, as more and more working-class people were executed for theft, the crowds became rowdier and even cheering for the condemned, which is not exactly what authorities want in a public execution. Fearing a potential riot, the authorities dismantled the constable’s picture frame in 1783 and moved all executions by hanging to Newgate Gaol. Today, the only indication of this once-notorious gibbet is a simple inscription in the pavement of a (appropriately triangular) traffic island just off of Hyde Park. As with Tower Green and Tower Hill, I paused a moment here and reflected somberly that I was now standing in a place where so many had ended their days at the end of a rope. This felt oddly emphasized by the fact that the traffic island is triangular in shape, just like the three-legged stool (Yes, these phrases I’ve been using are actual euphemisms for the Tyburn Tree).
We both had plenty of fun out today, but T decided it was time to go home. As for me, I still wanted to see this green oasis in the urban desert, so I took a pleasant walk across Hyde Park until I arrived at a Tube station in the southeast corner of the park (the name of the Tube stop is “Hyde Park Corner;” I wonder how long it took to think up that one). The park was all manners of green and orange and felt quite peaceful (outside of Speakers’ Corner, that is), reminding me of Central Park in my hometown of New York. It was certainly the sensation of tranquility I needed after all this work and before all these finals!
And with that, my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage comes to a conclusion. What better place to end a criminal-related pilgrimage than a place where so many criminals ended up/came to an end?
*gunshot*
Sorry! Anyway, all that’s left is a few classes and finals. I probably won’t have much to write in the meantime. May Fortune favor me…
One final thing: In case you were wondering what the pun in the title of this entry is, “going west” was a euphemism for being hanged, as the procession from Newgate to Tyburn was indeed west (Tyburn itself being west of the City of London). It also hints at what I’ll being doing in six days via airplane…
Modern reflections:
Here's a really memorable trip! Not only was Speakers' Corner quite the memory in and of itself, but Tyburn was a trip I had been eager for all autumn (unlike most people who took a trip there). I actually started writing parts of this post (specifically the humorous opening and the description of the Tyburn Tree) over a month before my excursion. Happily, it lived up to my expectations.
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