View current time in London, UK
Compare Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and British Summer Time (BST)
Current time in London
A recurring question: GMT or BST?
London, the capital of the United Kingdom, is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) only during winter months. The GMT timezone has the same hour offset (GMT+0) as the Western European Time Zone . When Daylight Saving Time starts, London and the whole of UK are on British Summer Time (BST), which is GMT+1.
Time at the Shepherd Gate Clock, at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, UK. GMT stays the same all year round, no DST (Daylight Saving Time) rules apply.
A Time Landmark
Any visitor to central London and Londoners alike can check London and UK time just by raising their eyes near the Parliament. A majestic tower, Elizabeth Tower, houses what is likely the most famous clock in the world, affectionately known as Big Ben.
Its chimes are as iconic as its face. On 21 August 2017, at midday, Big Ben chimes sounded for the last time, before the start of major maintenance work.
Read a brief history of Big Ben and listen to sample sounds on Big Ben Time .
The British Parliament has a special section of its site devoted to Big Ben, including questions and answers .
London follows European Clock Change Dates
When do clocks next change in Europe?
- Daylight saving start: Sunday 26 March 2017 01:00 GMT. Clocks go forward one hour.
- Daylight saving end: Sunday 29 October 2017 01:00 GMT.Clocks go back one hour.
UK and Europe Clock Change Rules
What happens to European clocks in Summer?
At the start of the Daylight Saving period, time is adjusted forward by 1 hour, to become ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
What happens to European clocks in Winter?
After the summer months time is shifted shifted back by 1 hour to GMT.
GMT and Greenwich - a brief history
London's history can be explored in the iconic Museum of London .
Greenwich was a royal park and palace on a hill to the south of the River Thames, east of London.
In 1675 the great race to create accurate maps for navigators had begun and Charles II offered the land to The Royal Society for Britain's first national observatory. Christopher Wren was commissioned to design the domed building and John Flamsteed was appointed the Astronomer Royal.
British mapmakers began to set Longitude from Greenwich. In 1884 the International Meridian Conference decided that the meridian passing through the main transit instrument at The Royal Observatory in Greenwich would become the Prime Meridian.
Every 15° longitude represents one hour's difference in time: (24 x 15 = 360, the degrees of a circle). You can work out the time at every location on earth if you know how many degrees it is east or west of Greenwich.The fastest way would be of course the GMT Time Converter : choose a place and view the local time instantly! Just one tab away you will find other useful time tools, where you can customize your preferred clocks, see what is a mutually agreeable meeting time and even see the dark side of Planet Earth!