Hyde Park

This is a Forte Hotels postcard available for purchase at the Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch. The postcard shows a painting of Speakers Corner, Marble Arch and the Cumberland Hotel by Andrew Murray. The image was painted in 1977 when the hotel was owned by the Forte Group, it is now owned by GLH Hotels and on 30th April this year it will re-open as the Hard Rock Hotel. The clue to the date of the painting lies with the London Transport bus with the advertisement for the “British Genius Exhibition” which was held between May and October 1977 at Battersea Park as part of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. I spent many an hour policing Speakers Corner during the mid-1970s and made my first crime arrest there. A Chinese girl reported to me that she had just had her purse taken from her bag by a pickpocket, as I removed my notebook to take details I asked her if she could describe the suspect, she told me that she could do better than that and pointed to a man waiting at the bus stop in Park Lane which was adjacent to Speakers Corner. I grabbed the man’s arm telling him that he was under arrest and his arm came out of his coat pocket clutching the stolen purse in his hand, I think that is called “Bang to Rights”.

Done