The clocks go back by an hour tonight, in the early hours of Sunday morning, October 20, meaning we get some extra time in bed.
The clocks go back at 2am on the last Sunday in October. Most smartphones and some alarm clocks update the time automatically to 1am, but if you have any analogue clocks or watches around the house, or car, it's worth remembering to adjust them.
All four faces of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament’s clock tower, will be put back to GMT this weekend for the first time in five years, as the country starts to head towards winter. The clock’s original Victorian mechanism was renovated as part of a huge restoration project, and the scaffolding surrounding the tower has gradually been brought down since December 2021.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said the clock change “will herald a new beginning” for the central London landmark. It will take Parliament’s team of clock mechanics a total of 24 hours over the weekend to ensure that all 2,000 timepieces across the estate are changed in time for the clocks to go back on October 30.
Over the past five years the Elizabeth Tower, and the clockwork and bell mechanism within it, have undergone the biggest repair and conservation project in its 160-year history. The tower, at the northern end of the Houses of Parliament, which is also known as Big Ben after the bell inside, has been covered in scaffolding during the restoration work.
People will only be aware that Big Ben is being changed to GMT when the lights go out on its four dial faces at 10pm on Saturday.
Parliamentary clock mechanic Alex Jeffrey said: “This is so people looking up do not wonder why the hands are going round and get confused.
“Under the cover of darkness we effectively stop the clock and hold it for two hours, only restarting it again at midnight and putting the dial lights back on at 2am when it is officially GMT.”
The clocks go back every year heading into winter, to allow people to start and finish their working day an hour earlier.
It means that people have an hour less daylight at the end of the day, which can be less practical in the winter as the evenings become darker.
When do the clocks go forward?
The clocks will go forward by an hour in spring 2023. It brings more light during the daylight hours.
The move forward will happen on Sunday, March 26. Builder William Willett suggested the changing of the clocks in the UK all the way back in 1907. He wanted to stop the waste of early morning daylight and introduce brighter evenings during the summer months.
British Summer Time was introduced in 1916 as an Act of Parliament.
