Current Time in London

London sits at the heart of the world's timekeeping system. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) — named after the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, southeast London — has served as the global reference point for time since 1884. When people ask "what time is it in London?", they're asking about one of the most searched time zones on the planet, with over 500,000 monthly searches worldwide.

London observes two time zones throughout the year. During winter months (late October through late March), the city runs on GMT, which is UTC+0 — the baseline from which all other time zones are measured. During the warmer months, the UK switches to British Summer Time (BST), which is UTC+1, effectively moving clocks forward by one hour to make better use of daylight.

The change happens on the last Sunday of March at 1:00 AM GMT (clocks spring forward to 2:00 AM BST) and reverts on the last Sunday of October at 2:00 AM BST (clocks fall back to 1:00 AM GMT). This means the time difference between London and other cities can shift throughout the year. For example, Sydney is normally 11 hours ahead of London during GMT, but only 10 hours ahead during BST because Australia's daylight saving operates on the opposite schedule.

For business, travel, and communication, knowing the exact time in London is essential. London is one of the world's major financial centres — the London Stock Exchange opens at 8:00 AM GMT and closes at 4:30 PM GMT. Many international conference calls and meetings are scheduled around London time because it bridges Asian and American business hours.

If you're coordinating across time zones, our Time Zone Converter can help you translate times between any two cities, and the Overlap Hours Calculator shows the best meeting windows for teams spread across the globe.

This tool uses your device clock combined with the IANA "Europe/London" timezone database to display the accurate current time in London, automatically handling the GMT/BST transition so you never have to guess which offset applies.