London’s final sunset after 7pm is happening very soon

It’s coming days before the autumn equinox, where day and night are nearly equal in length

Leaves are falling, blue skies are disappearing and it’s only a matter of time before the cold winter nights sneak up on us. London is currently bright (albeit cloudy) into the early evening, but we’ll soon enjoy much less daylight than in previous weeks.

While June 21 was the longest day of the year, the sun has gradually been going down earlier and earlier with each passing month. Sadly, sunset will take place after 7pm for the final time in 2026 on Monday, September 21, according to Time and Date.

The weather is set to remain fairly mild until then, though the capital will see highs dip to below 20C on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, forecasters believe. The former will see a mix of sunny intervals and some breeze followed by clouds into the evening.

Rain is expected to arrive on Thursday, bringing intermittent showers between around 9am and 2pm. Friday is predicted to be uneventful before temperatures jump to 23C on Saturday.

Summer was officially over on August 31, according to the Met Office, with autumn now well underway. However, in astronomical terms, the season continues until the equinox on September 23.

This is one of two points in the year when the Sun illuminates the northern and southern hemispheres equally. This means day and night are nearly equal in length.

Days will continue to get shorter by 2 minutes each day until the winter solstice, which occurs on December 21. This is the quickest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

But, before then, the clocks will go back at 2am on October 26, meaning the days get even darker. The UK will then be on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the average time of day when the Sun crosses the Prime Meridian at The Royal Observatory.

When the clocks go forward, we’re in British Summer Time, and there’s more daylight in the evenings and less in the mornings. This is also sometimes called daylight saving time.

The idea was brought up in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor, scientist and Founding Father. However, it wasn’t until 1907 that a serious proposal was made in Britain by builder William Willett.

It’s thought he was annoyed his golf games would be interrupted by the sun going down, and so he began campaigning to change the law. The first official instance of clocks changing was implemented by Germany in the spring of 1916 to conserve energy, before the UK did the same a few weeks later, along with many other nations involved in World War I.