2009 Festival: The Big Slow Walk
Join us for a very sloooooow walk across Waterloo Bridge (on the pavement!) at rush hour on the first day of the festival. Enjoy one of the city’s loveliest river views at a snail’s pace, and show your support for Slow Down London.
Following a pace used in slow forms of ‘walking meditation’, we expect it will take each person about half an hour to cross the bridge. As we walk we’ll take in views of the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, St. Pauls cathedral and the river.
Meet in Embankment Gardens at the east end, nearest to Waterloo Bridge. Wear white and/or blue if possible.
Image by David Merrigan.
date: 24 April 2009 time: 17:00 cost: Free location: meet in Embankment Gardens
(corner of Savoy Place & Victoria Embankment)
April 19th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Do you think maybe you could reverse this walk so that those of us trying desperately to escape the dirty city can get to Waterloo Station and get home to the real world more quickly?! Maybe I should get a bus on Friday…. Alternatively, if it’s done around 8:00/8:30am I’m sure there will be many more people strolling across the bridge to get to work as slowly as possible….maybe that’s just me?!
April 20th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Hi Country Girl. Yes maybe we should be doing it in the morning rush hour! However just to reassure you, our intention is not to annoy people or to disrupt the movement of regular commuters across the bridge. It’s a very wide pavement and we will deliberately be making a narrow column, so it’s unlikely you will have trouble getting to your train and back to the ‘real world’ of the countryside!
April 25th, 2009 at 11:05 am
When I was crossing the bridge I was forced to walk in the road to get past the walkers and all the hangers on. I had to stay at work an hour longer than planned to help a colleague and wanted to get home quickly for an appointment. I had a camera shoved in my face and a reporter laughed at me when I said I had a train to catch. I hope this man was not part of this organisation. Slow Down London caused me upset and stress. It’s a fair enough cause to promote but upsetting commuters doesn’t help promote it. Slowing down is a choice, those not choosing to do so – for very valid reasons – should not be made to feel in the wrong.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Hello from the Slow Down London team. We’re very sorry if our Walk ended up causing you stress. We were very careful about how we organised this walk — the pavement on the bridge is about five persons wide, and we were walking in a narrow column two-by-two. So it was not intended in any way to disrupt or antagonize ordinary commuters.
What we did not anticipate was the amount of media attention generated. We had crews from NBC, Spanish TV, Al Jazeera and various other networks and individuals.
We are obviously pleased that this will help get the ‘slowing down’ message out to millions of people around the globe. However the presence of these crews did cause more disruption to people crossing the bridge than we had intended, and for that we apologize. We certainly do not see this as an ‘us’ and ‘them’ or ‘fast’ versus ‘slow’ situation.
We all know what it feels like to be rushing to catch a train or to make an appointment. So we are sorry for your stress and hope that you were not too delayed and can enjoy a more restful weekend!
April 26th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
It was a lovely amble, thanks. Only sorry that I got there too late for a t-shirt and a placard, but we had a nice time bringing up the rear, and missed all the press too.