Slow Down London at the Southbank Centre will feature literature events and debates, the popular Slow Food Market, slow music events and yoga workshops. Explore ideas about slow living, slow travel, pleasure, silence and how speed relates to our perception in the arts. Watch this website for updates on speakers and events.

The British Museum is a natural place to slow down: a place to connect with a longer sense of history, and to take time to contemplate the objects from all angles. Slow Down London activities throughout the week will include: a debate on our relationship to time and pace across cultures, daily gallery tours on the theme of time and tranquility, and a poetry and meditation workshop in the library. See Events section for more details.

At Foyles, we think that there should always be time for curling up with a good book. During Slow Down London week, wander to one of our slow events, view the slow Londonist exhibition in our café, or take a reading break in one of our designated slow zones – just look for the green grass and lawn chair – in all of our four shops.

The Ramblers is Britain’s biggest walking charity working to promote walking and to improve conditions for all walkers. There are seven London Ramblers groups including the Metropolitan Walkers, a group for Londoners in their 20s and 30s. The Ramblers will be organising a programme of ‘Slow Down London walks’ revealing the greener side of the Capital.

Living Streets is the national charity working to create safe, attractive and enjoyable streets across the UK. We believe our streets should be sociable public spaces, where we can all slow down and enjoy ourselves. We will be helping Slow Down London through Walk to Work week: join in and get brilliant ideas on how you can easily fit space in your life for a daily walk, enjoy our city and clear your mind for the day ahead.

Slow Down London at the National Portrait Gallery will feature a range of free activities exploring and engaging with ideas of time, contemplation and reflection. Take time out to stroll around the fascinating Collection and unwind with a series of gallery tours and lectures geared to help you slow down.

Discovering wildlife’s a rare and precious thing. The RSPB supports Slow Down London because we know one of the greatest hurdles stopping Londoners enjoying wildlife is a lack of time. Now, there’s no excuse. Nature’s amazing. Protecting and improving it is what we do. Time spent exploring London’s wildlife boosts mental and physical well-being, making London a better place for all.

Slow Food, founded in 1986, is an international organisation and movement which aims to protect the pleasures of the table from the homogenisation of modern fast food and life. Slow Food London is now one of the most active local chapters in the world: a voluntary, non profit association, representing several hundred members in the greater metropolitan area. During Slow Down London they will host their popular Slow Food Market at the Southbank Centre (1- 4 May 2009), including a special Mayday feast.

Walk London applauds the concept of Slow Down London. Walking may be the slowest form of transport but in the city it is often the quickest way to get around. Walking is the ideal way to explore and really get to know the hidden gems of the city. The six routes that make up the Strategic Walk Network are an ideal way to get to know London’s many parts, from urban ambles, to suburban strides and rural roams. Visit our website for leaflets & audio walks to download for free.

Enter into the spirit of Slow Down London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Listeners are encouraged to leave the outside world behind and engage in a deeper critical and emotional appreciation which bears little resemblance to the stresses of daily life. Playing Prokovief on 27 April, soloist Martha Argerich is an enigma, as famed for her aversion to the spotlight as for her outstanding playing.

L’Arte del Vivere con Lentezza (The Art of Slow Living) is an Italian asssociation commited to ‘slowing down to live better as an act of kindness towards self, others and the environment’. Their projects include the Global Day of Slow Living (9 March 2009) which has a special focus on Tokyo this year, but will include creative collective action in other cities. They will be coming to the UK to support Slow Down London and offer us a flavour of the slow living movement, Italian style.

The School of Life is a new cultural enterprise based in central London offering courses and events with some of the brightest thinkers and artists at work today. For Slow Down London, they present an Urban Gardening Holiday on 25 April 09. Emma Townshend, The Independent on Sunday’s gardening columnist, will guide us through a rarely seen side of London, opening doors to secret outside spaces on rooftops, down alleyways and inside office blocks. She’ll demonstrate essential urban skills such as how to grow salad in a window-box, joined by legendary guerrilla gardener Richard Reynolds.