British Summer Time -
The Changing of the Clocks

Every spring, Britain loses an hour it won't see again until autumn - and every autumn, it gets that hour back, though somehow it never quite feels like a gift. The changing of the clocks is one of those peculiarly British institutions: grumbled about, debated endlessly in Parliament, and yet stubbornly persistent. For over a century, we have been winding our clocks forward in March and back in October, trading a dark morning for a bright evening, all in pursuit of making the most of what little summer daylight this island has to offer.

Key Dates: British Summer Time 2026

See the dates for British Summer Time in our printable UK calendars for 2026:

Key Dates: British Summer Time 2027

How It Works: The Golden Rule

Many people struggle to remember which way the hands move. The easiest trick is the classic English mnemonic:

"Spring forward, Fall back."

Regional Differences and Terminology

The rules for the changing of the clock aren't identical everywhere, leading to a few regional differences:

• Europe
  "Summer Time" begins on the last Sunday in March (between 25 and 31 March) and ends on the last Sunday in October (between 25 and 31 October). The UK calls this British Summer Time (BST), France calls it heure d'été, and Germany refers to it as Sommerzeit. The rest of the year is known as "Standard Time", "Greenwich Mean Time" (GMT) or sometimes "Winter Time".
• North America
  In the United States and Canada, it is strictly called "Daylight Saving Time" (DST) and runs slightly longer - from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. Note: People often casually say "Daylight Savings Time" (with an "s"), but "Daylight Saving Time" is technically correct (this has nothing to do with "savings").
• The Non-Participants
  Not everyone changes their clocks. Iceland, Belarus, Turkey and Russia have all observed Summer Time in the past, but no longer observe seasonal time changes.

Simultaneous Clock Changes in Europe

To avoid chaos for international trains, flights, and communications, Europe coordinates its clock changes perfectly across its three major time zones. All clocks shift forward to Summer Time at the exact same absolute time across all time zones: 1:00 AM UTC.

Time Zone	Example Countries	Local Time of Change
Western European (GMT)	UK, Ireland, Portugal	1:00 AM
Central European (CET)	France, Germany, Italy, Spain	2:00 AM
Eastern European (EET)	Finland, Greece, Romania, Baltics	3:00 AM

A Brief History of Shifting Time

The modern use of Summer Time dates back more than a century.

• The Wartime Origins
  It was first widely implemented during World War I (the UK adopted it in 1916) as a desperate wartime measure to conserve coal and fuel. While many nations abandoned it after the war, it was quickly revived during World War II.
• The 1970s Energy Crisis
  The widespread, permanent adoption we see across Europe today was heavily driven by the global energy crisis of the 1970s, as governments looked for any way to lower national energy consumption.
• The Benjamin Franklin Myth
  Benjamin Franklin is often incorrectly credited with the idea because of a satirical 1784 essay suggesting Parisians could save money on candles by waking up earlier. The first serious proposal actually came from a New Zealand insect scientist named George Hudson in 1895 - he simply wanted more daylight hours after his day job to collect bugs!

Further reading: British Summer Time and Summer time in Europe on Wikipedia

Multi-Year Reference for British Summer Time

The current year is marked in red.