Zelda writes:

Following this exciting ten-day Festival through a lens, this ten-minute film documents the Slow Down London Festival 2009. It grasps the essential notion that as a collective we are finding ourselves in a time – especially in relation to the economic crisis and climate change – where alternative ways of living are vital to explore.

The Slow Down London Festival offers debates about time, speed, travel, food, craft, mediation, gardening, yoga, culture and history. It is trying to give a space to place ourselves now, in real time, to inspire the idea that living more slowly is not that difficult. With the balance in each step, and each decision we make, we can create a more sustainable present.

Watch the Slow Down London Documentary

It is Saturday evening at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Carl Honoré invites us to the revolutionary idea of SLOW. Carl Honoré is the author of In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is challenging the Cult of Speed and explores how we live in a speedocholic culture.

Considering the economic crisis that we are faced with today, and our well-known stress-factors, the question arises if we are ready to slow down? If we are ready to re-evaluate the meaning of time in relation to our lives and if there are alternatives to this culture of speed? Carl Honoré encourages us to see that Slow is for every one, that Slow is about doing things at the right speed and that being in fast-forward mode eventually only does us harm.
Watch Slow as a State of Mind

Dan Kieran, Ian Vince and Prasanth Visweswaran are living examples how it is possible to travel really sloooowly. They made an exciting road trip across the UK by travelling in a 1958 electric milk float. This little adventure brings to light how magnificent slow travel can be when we take it slowly.

Watch Three Men in a Float

STOP! Excuse me please, but why are you walking so fast? Standing outside the bookstore Foyles at Charring Cross Road, Bruno Contigiani director of the Italian organisation The Art of Slow Living is handing out speeding tickets to people who are walking at a speed of lightning. Along with the tickets Bruno hands out 14 ‘Slowmandments’, inspiring people to make a little change in their daily routine, and maybe to bring more happiness to life.

Watch Speed Ticketing

For more footage visit Zelda’s YouTube page

Image by Liz Poirier

The Hidden Green North London walk with the Ramblers (and one of its groups the Metropolitan Walkers) took place on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, on 3 May 2009. Jessica Scott captured this secret green journey on camera. See the Walking London gallery.

The Slow Food market was a delight to the senses, from a colourful array of vegetables to the alluring smells of Spanish paella. Visit the Slow Food Market gallery.

Julian Skinner of Zenways led a morning tai chi class on the Southbank, encouraging us to question the pace we live our lives in this wonderful but frantic city. Tai chi is a form of slow-moving meditation. See the Tai Chi Moves gallery

On Friday 24th April at the start of the rush-hour, a slow walk across Waterloo took place. Participants were encouraged to simply enjoy the experience, which they seemed to do. See the Big Slow Walk gallery.

On Sunday 3 May poet Jasmine Cooray led a creative writing workshop on the move, starting from Soho Square. It followed a treasure trail of locations, exploring movement and stillness around London. Visit the WRITELondon gallery.

Bruno Contigiani, director of The Art of Slow Living in Italy joined us to find out if London pedestrians are guilty of habitual speed. He handed out ‘speeding tickets’ to pedestrians on the Southbank and later on Charing Cross Road. See the Speeding Tickets gallery.

Don’t miss our main Gallery featuring wonderful images of London from the Slow Exposure photography competition hosted by the Londonist. And please post your own photos which express the idea of slowing down and appreciating our city from different angles in the Your Slow London gallery.

Image by Jon Rees

The answer is that Slow Down London certainly does not end with the 2009 festival. We will be building on the growing network of partners, supporters and friends. We hope to develop longer-term opportunities for challenging the cult of speed and appreciating the world around us.

Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road has already offered Slow Down London a central London home. An ongoing programme Slow Down London activities will range from yoga to letter writing and other workshops. Watch our website for further details coming soon.

Apart from public events, we are developing plans to take Slow Down London into workplaces. Many of us have experienced how the work culture can become unbalanced, with employees sitting at desks without even talking a lunch break or allowing themselves any sense of space in the day. During the festival we offered trial meditation sessions in several organizations, which were well received, and we will be developing this into a wider programme of slow down activities for the workplace. Do contact us if you are interested in taking part.

Meanwhile, the Slow Down London website is becoming a hub for ongoing articles and ideas by a growing network of supporters. Over the next few weeks, you can catch up with words and images from the festival, ranging from reviews of the events to photogalleries and videos. If you took part in the festival and would like to contribute a blog or images, do get in touch.

In the longer term, the site is becoming a treasure trove of inspiration for slowing down in this big metropolis. Check out our favourite Tips for Slowing Down, London’s Best Slow Spots, Slow Cinematography, and Reflections of an Urban Rambler. Coming up soon we’ll be featuring advice on Going Slow on the Tube, a short film inspired by the joys of urban meditation, and a blog by a walker dedicated to revealing hiddens secrets of the city. Please contact us if you would like to contribute.

We would like to thank all the volunteers who helped out during the festival and over the months we’ve been developing it – this project has only been possible thanks to your generous donation of time, energy and commitment.

Will there be another Slow Down London festival next year? We are a small team run by volunteers, and we’ll need some breathing space to evaluate, so we won’t be rushing into a decision quite yet. But do sign up as a subscriber on our homepage and we’ll keep you posted with the latest news. Keep in touch and don’t forget to sloooooow down now and then!

Image by Jon Rees

Artist, Herbert Elsky, led the event with a series of talks and demonstrations on calligraphy, Japanese flower arranging and Zen archery. There was also a video presentation on Miksang, a meditative form of photography. Miksang is a Tibetan word for “good eye” and aims to promote a greater awareness of our surroundings through the medium of photography.

“They are all different sorts of meditation” said Elsky. “Through them you can begin to connect with your own state of mind and learn to appreciate and enjoy yourself.”

The purpose of the day was also to show that meditation isn’t just about sitting quietly; it is about cultivating a state of mind that you can use in a very active way.

“Meditation doesn’t mean we have to become like zombies and sit on a cushion all day. People meditate because they want to make something good happen. You begin to see how you create your own obstacles and once that happens, you can go beyond them. It’s a beautiful thing to see happen.”

Alex Rankin

As the stroll reached its conclusion (at Angel tube station) its tired but happy participants were left to reflect on an afternoon spent making new friends and discovering hidden gems such as the New River Path and Canonbury Square.

Tessa Watt, Director of Slow Down London, said: “Walking at a slow pace brings our body and mind back into sync. The walk today felt natural and healthy and in keeping with what Slow Down London is all about – looking around us and appreciating our world.”

Only a quarter of the participants on the walk were members of Metropolitan Walkers – a reflection of the great strides made by Slow Down London in attracting members of the public to its relaxed, unhurried perspective.

“The fact that most of the people here today came solely for the Slow Down London event speaks volumes for the movement,” said the leader of the walk Phil Marson. Slow Down London, which was formed as a response to the stresses of city life, began its fortnight of activities with a ‘slow walk’ over Waterloo Bridge during rush hour on 24th April.

Reflecting on the festival, Watt, a former BBC Producer and self-confessed workaholic, said: “We get into habitual patterns. Events of this kind take us out of our everyday environment and experiences.”

Michael Isaac
Image by Jessica Scott

It’s 8am at Whitechapel tube station in East London. The train bound for central London pulls up and people crowd on. They wait, but the train doesn’t move. People start checking their watches and frowning.

Then the announcement comes: this train will depart in a few minutes, but the train on the opposite platform – also heading west – is now ready to depart! There is a scramble as people dive across the platform and into the train before the doors slam shut. Two minutes later, the first train trundles off with a few people left inside, casually thumbing their free newspapers in the deserted carriage.

I have to admit, I’m often among those people dashing across the platform. I know the manic effort will only save me a couple of minutes. But that doesn’t stop me tripping over my fellow Londoners to get on that train. So what is happening – are we going mad?

Our modern obsession with time was the subject of a debate at the British Museum last week. The panel, chaired by Slow Down London director, Tessa Watt, grappled with the question: why does ‘when’ seem to matter so much these days?

“We all live on the clock,” said Silke Ackermann, a curator at the British Museum. “For every minute of the day, there is something we should be doing or somewhere we should be. Even if we are just at home relaxing, we are still fitting that into our schedules.”

London doesn’t help matters either, being pretty much the fastest place to live in Britain. The collective madness at Whitechapel station is played out across the city every day, with ludicrous results. Arriving on the tube platform to discover there won’t be another train for four minutes, we throw up our hands in disbelief – four minutes? But I’ve got places to be!

The madness of always trying to beat the clock was neatly demonstrated by panelist Peter Sheppard Skaerved, a classical violinist from the Royal Academy of Music. On his 300-year-old Stradivarius, Skaerved whipped through a piece which frantically repeated itself as it climbed the neck of the violin. “The piece is basically hogwash, but it contains a brutal truth,” said Skaerved. “The faster it goes, the more it seems to stand still.”

Anthropologist Brian Durrans, a founder of the Time Capsule Society and consultant to the British Museum, pointed out that time has only recently become an international obsession. “It’s difficult to imagine now, but as late as the 19th century, countries were setting their own time. And still using natural means such as the sun and moon.” Before 1855, many areas of Britain weren’t observing the time set by Greenwich – although since the most common mode of transport was still the horse, punctuality wasn’t too high on people’s agendas.

It was only once transport improved and global finance cranked into life that the world needed to get on the same clock (which many countries had done by 1911). Since then, timekeeping has gone global. “It’s good to remember – even just occasionally – that our concept of time is only something we agree to take part in,” said Durrans, “and not something that concretely exists.”
So should we be concerned about our obsession with hours and minutes? “I don’t think we should,” said Durrans. “We organise our lives around schedules and routines because they give our lives meaning – it’s part of what makes us human.”

However, Ackermann believed the most important thing is not being ruled by the clock. “We spend so much time worrying about what is happening next, but even just taking regular moments to pause and reflect can be immensely empowering,” said Ackermann.

While none of us are going to be throwing our watches in the Thames any time soon, it might just be worth remembering this point before diving onto the tube tomorrow morning.

Chris Cox

Image by Mike King

For someone seen as a leader of the global slow movement, Carl Honoré is a ball of energy. Speaking at the South Bank Centre on 25 April 2009, the Canadian journalist and author of In Praise of Slow took the audience on a speed history of the Slow movement.

Looking unfatigued despite having just flown in from Canada, Honoré attacked the subject of “finding your inner tortoise” with a vigour not usually found off the squash court.

A paradox? Perhaps not. During his talk, Honoré argued that slowing down does not mean, as some critics believe, simply doing everything slower. There is “good slow” – which could be anything from getting enough sleep to cooking a decent meal. But there is also “bad slow” – for example, casually collecting your belongings while your house is on fire. Speed and slowness are both important. The trick, Honoré believes, is getting the balance right.

Unfortunately this is where we are going wrong. “Our solution to everything these days is making things faster,” he told the audience. “Not reading enough? We learn to speed read. Trouble finding love? We go speed dating.” In the United States there are even drive-through funerals, where you can pay your respects as quickly as ordering a burger.

These examples made everyone laugh, but they also point towards something serious. As Honoré explained throughout In Praise of Slow, the relentless pursuit of speed is having a damaging effect on our culture, our relationships, our environment and – ultimately – ourselves. When we are rushing through our lives, we don’t realise that we are accumulating damaging levels of stress and fatigue – particularly in big cities like London, which Honoré calls “particle accelerators”.

So it has been in response to this acceleration that the Slow movement – a term Honoré uses reluctantly – has sprung up in so many forms, such as slow food, slow cities, slow sex and slow work to name a few. Across the world people are finding ways to challenge the cult of speed that shapes many of our lives. “Slower can often mean more efficient, because you get things right first time,” he said. “If you are always in top gear, you make mistakes and cause chaos.”

In conversation with BBC journalist Rosie Goldsmith after his talk, Honoré said that the global meltdown was the perfect illustration of this. “The financial crisis shows you how catastrophic too much speed can be,” he said. “No one had the time to stop and think about where the financial system was headed, and now we are facing the biggest economic crisis in decades.”

So how can we start slowing down? One way is simply by doing less. We are always trying to cram more into our days, but this means we barely appreciate experiences as they go whizzing past. This rings true in London, where there is pressure to seek constant entertainment. Another way is to have some kind of slow ritual in your daily life, which could be anything – cooking, meditation, walking to work, spending time with friends.

“It’s about finding a way to apply the brakes,” said Honoré. “It helps you to find what the Italians call the tempo giusto – the right speed.” And with that, he calmly bounded off the stage.

Chris Cox

The crowd gathered at Embankment Gardens by the Thames at 5pm and were handed t-shirts and placards for the walk.
Speaking over a megaphone, one of the walk leaders Jane Ward told people to simply enjoy the experience and appreciate the changing views as they passed over the bridge.
The group then slowly made their way across the bridge in a narrow procession, flanked by news cameras and hurried passersby.

Strangers chatted to each other as they walked in the afternoon sunshine. “I’ve met so many people,” said Ruth Smith from west London. “When you’re buzzing along you aren’t really listening to other people, but when you slow down, suddenly everyone feels more comfortable just talking to each other.”

Others welcomed the chance to soak up the views of London at a slower pace. “You forget how beautiful London is when you’re rushing around,” said Philip Darby, a charity fundraiser from Surrey. “Walking slowly across the bridge makes you remember there is actually light and space in London, you just need to seek it out.”

Not everyone was taking the Slow approach across town. “Is this Slow Down London?” asked one woman as she hurried past towards Waterloo Station. “You really need to speed up.”

The walk ended outside the South Bank Centre,where the crowd listened to London singer Annalie Wilson in the last of the sun.

“It’s been a very calming and enjoyable experience,” said Slow Down London director Tessa Watt, who led the walkers over the bridge. “Just taking the time to enjoy the river and the views can have a powerful effect – they make you slow down and appreciate where you are.”

The Slow festivities continued at the National Portrait Gallery with live jazz and a talk on timekeeping by David Rooney from London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

Chris Cox

Visit the Big Slow Walk photo gallery.

Watch a video of the Big Slow Walk on YouTube by Zelda Moehring.

Image by Richard Woolley

What is the ethos behind the Slow Theatre workshop?
The plan is to bring together about 16 actors aged 13 to 40 and work with them and their responses to the massive pressures of living in London. Some will be more obvious than others, such as the rush hour, but it will also look at people’s lack of conversation with each other. There will be about a 25 minute performance as a direct response to this.

Do you have an idea as to how this might be done?
The workshop is open to interpretation, but there is some structure in place. One idea is for the performance to take the shape of a family in transit through the pressure zones of London. There will be some organic music to compliment the performance and a lot of physical theatre involved.

What are you hoping to achieve from it?
I’m very interested in the differences between living here compared with France or Italy where everyone talks to each other. Here, you get on a train and no one even wants to look at each other. I wanted to respond to that. I hope that will be a part of it, but it’s up to the group.
I would hope that people will go away from this in a more civil frame of mind so that next time they get on a train they might even say good morning. If that happens, a ripple effect is created.

The workshop will culminate in a performance at 17:30, open to all. More information here.

What was the idea behind the trip?
It was based on the notion that the journey can be the reason for going somewhere in the first place. These days, there’s no real travel, it’s only movement. People jump in a wormhole at an airport and then appear on the other side of the world. If you travel somewhere slowly, you acclimatise to your destination.

Did it change your perspective on how we live in the modern world?

On a personal level, the trip changed my life in many ways. When you go in a car after being on a float, you realise how fast we have become accustomed to living; it feels like going on a rollercoaster. Deliberately slowing down has a very profound effect on you if you do it for long enough. You begin to wonder if the slow world is the real world.

Another aspect of the trip was to discover whether community spirit is still alive in this country. Charging the float was a big demand of people, but out of everyone we asked, only 2 refused. It gave us back that sense that this country is full of amiable people and not the terrifying crap that you see in the headlines.

How does this all relate to Slow Down London?

It relates to everyone that lives in a western democracy. Here, everything is about making things bigger and faster, but there is a different way of living.
I think everyone is slow at heart, but they’ve all been railroaded into this insane chaotic way of life. We’ve been told that free trade and capitalism is the way forward and everything has to grow and improve. It’s never been more obvious that that is complete nonsense. Maybe if we got all our policymakers to drive around the country in a milk float for a month they might get some depth of what this country is really like.

You currently live in Chichester. Do you find that a rural lifestyle is more conducive to slow living than the big city?
I love London and still go there quite a lot. But the problem with living in a city is that you feel like that is where everything is happening and if you’re not there, you’re missing out in some way. Moving here has made me realise that it is possible to just relax. But the city is magical too. I think there is a way to have both.

Dan Kieran gives a free talk about his experiences at Foyles bookshop on 28 April 2009.

Alex Rankin