The United Kingdom keeps one clock. From Land's End to John o' Groats, from Belfast to Lowestoft, everybody reads the same hour off the same time zone, which makes British timekeeping refreshingly dull compared with countries that have to ask "yes, but where?" before answering. The clock at the top of this page shows current UK time, updating every second, and it already accounts for whichever half of the year you are in.
Those two halves are Greenwich Mean Time in winter and British Summer Time in the warmer months. The changeover dates are set by the Summer Time Order and land in the same place every year: the clocks go forward one hour on the last Sunday in March and back again on the last Sunday in October. Because the shift happens in the small hours of a Sunday, most people meet it as a phone that has quietly sorted itself out overnight and an oven that has not.
Why the world's clocks are measured from a London suburb
Greenwich Mean Time takes its name from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, through which the prime meridian was drawn at an international conference in 1884. The modern global standard is UTC, kept by atomic clocks rather than by watching stars cross a wire, but in ordinary British speech GMT and UTC are used interchangeably and the practical difference for setting an alarm is nil.
Britain has experimented with leaving the clocks alone. Between 1968 and 1971 the country stayed an hour ahead of GMT right through the winter, an arrangement remembered mostly for pitch-dark school mornings in Scotland, and the trial was abandoned. The argument resurfaces every autumn, usually around the time the evenings collapse into darkness before five.
One quirk worth knowing if you are reading a British timetable: rail, aviation and the emergency services all write times in the 24-hour clock, while almost nobody speaks that way. Someone who says they will meet you at half seven means half past seven, not half an hour before it, which is a genuine trap for anyone arriving from Germany or the Netherlands.
Common questions
What time is it in the UK right now?
The clock at the top of this page shows it, updating every second. The whole of the United Kingdom shares one time zone, so the answer is the same in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.
When do the clocks change in Britain?
Forward one hour on the last Sunday in March, when British Summer Time begins, and back one hour on the last Sunday in October, when the country returns to Greenwich Mean Time. Both changes happen in the early hours.
What is the difference between GMT and BST?
British Summer Time is exactly one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. The UK uses GMT through the winter and BST from late March to late October, which is why UK time is written as UTC+0 or UTC+1 depending on the season.
Is GMT the same thing as UTC?
Not technically — UTC is maintained by atomic clocks and GMT is an astronomical time scale tied to the Greenwich meridian — but they never differ by as much as a second in practice, and for everyday purposes the two are used interchangeably.
Do the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man use UK time?
Yes. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man keep the same hours as the UK and change their clocks on the same two Sundays, despite not being part of the United Kingdom.
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