What time is it in United Kingdom?
GMT / BST · Europe/London
Back to United KingdomNow in London
GMT UTC+00:00
UTC+00:00
UTC+01:00 in summerGreenwich Mean Time
The United Kingdom keeps Greenwich Mean Time, the solar time of the Greenwich Observatory in London, through the winter, and moves its clocks one hour forward to British Summer Time from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland share that one zone, listed in the time zone database as Europe/London. The Crown Dependencies keep the same clocks under their own laws, while none of the fourteen overseas territories uses British Summer Time: Gibraltar, for one, follows Spain on Central European Time.
Today
Daylight in London today
DayLive
12:00
- Sunrise
- 06:55First light 06:22
- Sunset
- 18:47Last light 19:20
- Day length
- 11 h 52 min−4 min on yesterday
- Solar noon
- 12:51Sun at 37°, its highest
Plan a call
Find an hour that works in United Kingdom and elsewhere
The two rows are the same day, hour for hour. Pick a city, then an hour, and the line between the rows marks the office hours both sides share.
Time difference
How far United Kingdom is from other places
Neighbours
- IrelandDublinSame time
Around the world
- New York−5 h
- Los Angeles−8 h
- São Paulo−4 h
- Moscow+2 h
- Dubai+3 h
- Delhi+4:30 h
- Beijing+7 h
- Tokyo+8 h
- Sydney+9 h
Clock changes
When the clocks change in United Kingdom
Next change
Sunday, 25 October 2026
Clocks go back one hour: at 02:00 it becomes 01:00 GMT, UTC+00:00. The night is an hour longer.
| Year | Clocks go forward | Clocks go back |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 29 March 01:00 → 02:00 | 25 October 02:00 → 01:00 |
| 2027 | 28 March 01:00 → 02:00 | 31 October 02:00 → 01:00 |
| 2028 | 26 March 01:00 → 02:00 | 29 October 02:00 → 01:00 |
| 2029 | 25 March 01:00 → 02:00 | 28 October 02:00 → 01:00 |
| 2030 | 31 March 01:00 → 02:00 | 27 October 02:00 → 01:00 |
British Summer Time began under the Summer Time Act 1916, which put the clocks an hour ahead of Greenwich from 21 May to 1 October that year. During the Second World War the country ran two hours ahead in summer, on British Double Summer Time, from 1941 to 1945; the clocks had not gone back in the autumn of 1940, and the time zone database records the same double offset again in 1947. From 18 February 1968 to 31 October 1971 the clocks stayed on summer time through three winters, an experiment Parliament ended after a debate in 1971. The Summer Time Act 1972 then set the dates: the day after the third Saturday in March to the day after the fourth Saturday in October until 1980, European directives from 1981, and since 2002 the last Sundays of March and October, which the Summer Time Order 1997 had already brought into line with the European Union from 1998.
Daylight
Sunrise and sunset through the year in London
- Sunrise
- 06:55
- Sunset
- 18:47
- Daylight
- 11 h 52 min
- Change
- −4 min
Longest day of 2026: 21 June, 16 h 39 min.
Computed for 51.51, -0.13 at sea level with the NOAA solar equations, to the nearest minute, taking no account of hills.
Writing the time
- Clock
- 24-hour
- Short date
- 05/03/2026
- Long date
- 5 March 2026
- Week starts
- Monday
- Zone names
- GMT / BST
- Time zone database
- London
History
How the clocks in United Kingdom got here
- 1890
- To 1915.UTC+00:00 all year, no summer time.
- 1916
- To 1939.UTC+00:00 in winter, UTC+01:00 in summer time.
- 1940
- UTC+00:00 in winter, UTC+01:00 in summer time.
- 1941
- To 1944.Clocks on UTC+01:00, UTC+02:00 at different times of the year.
- 1945
- Clocks on UTC+00:00, UTC+01:00, UTC+02:00 at different times of the year.
- 1946
- UTC+00:00 in winter, UTC+01:00 in summer time.
- 1947
- Clocks on UTC+00:00, UTC+01:00, UTC+02:00 at different times of the year.
- 1948
- To 1967.UTC+00:00 in winter, UTC+01:00 in summer time.
- 1968
- UTC+00:00 in winter, UTC+01:00 in summer time.
- 1969
- To 1970.Summer time kept through the winter: UTC+01:00 all year.
- 1971
- UTC+00:00 in winter, UTC+01:00 in summer time.
- 1972
- To today.UTC+00:00 in winter, UTC+01:00 in summer time.
From the IANA time zone database, Europe/London, as the build machine carries it.
Common questions
Questions about the time in United Kingdom
What time zone is the United Kingdom in?
Winter clocks in the UK show Greenwich Mean Time, which is UTC itself; from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October they show British Summer Time, an hour ahead. The whole country keeps one zone, so a clock in Belfast, Cardiff or Edinburgh shows the same time as one in London. The time zone database lists it as Europe/London, with Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man as links to the same zone.
When do the clocks change in the UK in 2026?
The clocks went forward on Sunday 29 March 2026, from 01:00 to 02:00, and go back on Sunday 25 October, from 02:00 to 01:00. The 2027 pair falls on 28 March and 31 October. The change happens at 01:00 UTC, the same instant as in the European Union, a timing the UK kept after leaving it.
What is the difference between GMT and BST?
One hour. GMT is the standard time, the solar time at the Greenwich Observatory, which Great Britain made its legal time under the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act 1880. BST is summer time, GMT plus one hour, the same offset Portugal calls Western European Summer Time and Ireland calls Irish Standard Time.
Did the UK ever keep summer time all year?
Yes, for almost four years. The clocks went forward on 18 February 1968 and did not go back until 31 October 1971, so the country spent the winters of 1968 to 1971 an hour ahead of Greenwich, the same time as Central European Time. The experiment was halted after a debate in 1971, and proposals to adopt Central European Time have been raised by politicians several times since, one of them in 2011.
What was British Double Summer Time?
Two hours ahead of Greenwich, kept in the summers of 1941 to 1945. The clocks were not put back in the autumn of 1940, so winter stayed on BST, and each spring they went forward a further hour. On 15 July 1945 they returned to BST, and on 7 October 1945 to GMT.
Will the UK stop changing its clocks?
The sources record no plan to. The EU proposal to end the seasonal change dates from September 2018, and the UK left the Union on 31 January 2020, before any reform took effect; EU rules applied until 31 December 2020, and since then the UK can set its own. In September 2018 the government said it had no plans to end summer time. If the EU dropped the change and the UK did not, Northern Ireland would sit an hour apart from either the Republic or Great Britain for 30 or 31 weeks a year.
Is Northern Ireland on the same time as the Republic of Ireland?
Yes. Both keep UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer and change on the same nights. The Northern Ireland Assembly has the power to legislate its own time zone but has never used it, since the Republic has followed the UK. In Scotland and Wales the time zone is a reserved matter, which only the UK Parliament can change.