How to use the online alarm clock
Three in the morning is when London's wholesale markets are in full swing while the rest of the city is asleep. Smithfield has been trading meat through the small hours for the better part of a thousand years, and New Covent Garden's traders are already sorting the fruit and vegetables that will reach restaurant kitchens before lunch. The buyers who need to be there set their alarms for this hour and no other.
It has a reputation as the low point of the night, and there is something to it: body temperature and alertness both bottom out around now, which is exactly why so many night-shift safety checks are scheduled here rather than left to judgement.
Sea anglers and small-boat crews are another group who keep this hour, because tides do not negotiate. So are drivers heading for a long journey who would rather cross the country before the motorways fill. Each minute from 3:00 am to 3:59 am has its own page below, and none of them requires an account or an install to use.
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