Exact time now:

The exact time in London shown here is the current local time at the home of Greenwich Mean Time — the world's timekeeping reference point. London operates on GMT (UTC+0) during winter and British Summer Time (BST, UTC+1) during summer. The UK observes Daylight Saving Time: in 2026, BST begins on March 29 and ends on October 25, following the European DST schedule that runs from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October.

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, is the historic home of the Prime Meridian (Longitude 0°), from which all global time zones are measured. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the modern successor to GMT and remains nearly identical — a legacy that makes London's time uniquely central to global navigation, aviation, and broadcasting. The BBC World Service broadcasts its news bulletins on the hour GMT year-round, serving an estimated 350 million listeners worldwide.

For business coordination, the London Stock Exchange operates from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM GMT/BST, overlapping with both the Asian morning session (closing overlap from 8:00-9:00 AM London / 3:00-4:00 PM Tokyo) and the US morning session (1:30-4:30 PM London / 8:30-11:30 AM New York). This makes London the key bridge between Asian and North American trading hours. London is 5 hours ahead of New York (during EST), 8 hours behind Tokyo, and 7 hours behind Beijing.

The best times for international calls: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM London time covers the US East Coast morning (4:00-8:00 AM ET); 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM London time overlaps with late afternoon in the Middle East and early evening in Asia. When scheduling across continents, London's midday (12:00 PM) corresponds to 7:00 AM in New York, 4:00 AM in Los Angeles, 4:30 PM in Dubai, 7:00 PM in Bangkok, and 8:00 PM in Singapore.