Sunrise & sunset times in London

Sun and moon in London

For photographers, gardeners, runners and anyone chasing good light, the daily sun and moon schedule for London is easy to check here. This page shows live sunrise, sunset, solar noon, day length, morning and evening golden hour, blue hour, dawn and dusk, plus the current moon phase and the moonrise and moonset times for London. Every value is calculated in the browser for the date you pick and shown in the local time of London, United Kingdom. London sits at roughly 51.51 degrees north, in the northern hemisphere, so it sees a wide seasonal swing between long summer days and short winter afternoons, so sunrise and sunset move dramatically across the year. Because the length of the day changes with the seasons, the exact sunrise and sunset in London shift from week to week. Pick any date with the date picker to see how the light will fall on a specific day, which is handy for planning a shoot, an event, a wedding, a flight or simply the best moment to catch the last warm light of the evening. Golden hour, that soft warm window near sunrise and sunset, is the favourite of photographers in London. Blue hour, the cooler stretch just before sunrise and just after sunset, is ideal for cityscapes and long exposures. Combined with the moon phase and moon times, this gives you a complete picture of natural light over London, United Kingdom for any day of the year.

What time is sunset in London today?

The sun sets in London at 18:36 today, Friday, 2 October 2026, in London's own local time. The warm light starts well before that: evening golden hour opens at 17:51, giving 44 minutes of low golden light before the sun reaches the horizon. Sunset is not the end of the light either. Last light, the moment usable daylight ends at civil dusk, follows 33 minutes later at 19:09, and the sky is properly dark at 20:27, 1h 51m after sunset.

Tomorrow the sun sets at 18:33 in London. That is 2 minutes 16 seconds earlier than today. Over the coming week sunset moves 15 minutes 41 seconds earlier.

Planning around the light? See golden hour in London.

Is the day getting longer or shorter in London right now?

London gets 11h 33m of daylight today, from sunrise to sunset. Tomorrow will be 3 minutes 54 seconds shorter. Over the next seven days London loses 27 minutes 16 seconds of daylight.

That pace is not constant. In London the day length changes fastest around March, near the equinox, when it moves by about 3 minutes 59 seconds per day, and it slows almost to a stop at the solstices in June and December. The word solstice means exactly that: the sun standing still.

When are the earliest and latest sunrise and sunset in London?

The earliest sunset of 2026 in London falls on 12 December at 15:51, 9 days before the December solstice, and the latest on 25 June at 21:21.

Sunrise runs on its own schedule: earliest on 17 June at 04:42, latest on 30 December at 08:06, 9 days after the December solstice. The four dates in the table below do not line up with the solstices, and they are not supposed to. Earth's orbit is slightly elliptical and its axis is tilted, so the sun runs a few minutes fast or slow against clock time through the year. That offset, the equation of time, is what pushes the earliest sunset ahead of the shortest day and the latest sunrise behind it.

These are wall-clock times, so London's daylight saving change is part of the picture: an hour moved by the clocks counts the same as an hour moved by the Earth.

For the longest and shortest day themselves, see day length in London.

How long does twilight last in London?

First light in London arrives 33 minutes before sunrise today, at 06:29. After sunset the light hangs on for another 33 minutes, until 19:09. That evening stretch is not the same all year in London: it runs from 33 minutes at its shortest, in September, to 48 minutes at its longest, in June. The lower the angle at which the sun crosses the horizon, the longer twilight lasts, which is why dusk is a slow affair at high latitudes and abrupt near the equator.

For 59 nights of 2026, the longest stretch running from 23 May to 20 July, the sky over London never gets fully dark. The sun stays within 18 degrees of the horizon all night, so astronomical twilight lasts straight through to dawn and the faintest stars never come out.

Full three-band twilight tables: dawn in London and dusk in London.

How high does the sun get in London?

At midday on the June solstice the sun stands 61.9 degrees above the horizon in London. On the December solstice it climbs only 15.1 degrees. A midday sun that low throws a shadow about 3.7 times the height of whatever casts it, so even at noon in midwinter the shadows in London are long ones.

Frequently asked questions about London

Data and methodology: every time on this page is computed from London's coordinates with SunCalc, an open source astronomy library, not estimated or looked up from a table. Coordinates 51.51, -0.13, time zone Europe/London. Accurate to about a minute for a flat, unobstructed horizon; terrain, tall buildings and atmospheric conditions can shift the moment the sun is actually visible by a few minutes. Full method on methodology.

Nearby cities

Sun and moon times for places close to London. Sunrise and sunset shift as you move east, west, north or south.

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Plain-English guides to the moments that shape the day in London and everywhere else.

Keep London in your calendar

Subscribe to a live feed of London's sunrise and sunset in your own calendar app, so today's light is always a glance away. It updates by itself, with no account.