Sun path London: sunrise, sunset and the sun's height by month (2026)

Last checked: 23 October 2026. Written by the Flatwalk team.

Short answer. Measured at Charing Cross, the midday sun on 21 December clears the horizon by only about 15°, while on 21 June it stands about 62° up. London's midwinter light lasts 7h 50m, with the sun up at 8:03 and gone by 15:53 GMT, against 16h 38m at midsummer, 4:43 to 21:21 BST. December's sun appears low in the southeast (128°) and drops away in the southwest (232°); June's appears in the northeast (49°) and drops in the northwest (311°). So a south facing window with clear sky ahead can be sunlit for the whole of a December day, and a north facing one not at all.

See the sun at your own window

London's sun by month

Every row uses Charing Cross (51.51° N, 0.13° W), the spot London's road distances are traditionally measured from, on the 15th of the month through 2026, in clock time. Read each bearing clockwise from true north: 90° east, 180° south, 270° west. Across the rest of the capital the times move by a minute or two.

Summer time begins on 29 March 2026 and ends on 25 October 2026, which puts the rows from April through October in BST. Expect the sun at its peak, due south, around 12:00 GMT in winter and around 13:00 BST in summer; that peak, over a flat horizon, is what the noon column records.

Hours of sun on each side of a flat in London

Picture each window with nothing in front of it but a level horizon: the table gives the most direct sun it could then collect, by the way it faces. Few London windows look out on a horizon like that, so read these as ceilings for open sky; neighbouring buildings, street trees and the balcony upstairs all cut into them, and hardest in winter, while the sun stays low.

How the London figures play out:

• Only the south half of the compass counts in December. A south window is lit for the full length of the day, east and west each get a little under 4 hours, and north is left with nothing at all.
• June turns the diagonals into winners. The midsummer sun comes up and goes down so far north that south-east and south-west both beat due south, and even a north window collects over 7 hours, in the early mornings and late evenings.
• At the March equinox north is almost shut out. Sunrise sits close to due east and sunset close to due west around 21 March, so a north window catches only a few minutes.

No London window does better than this table. What the sun tool does is subtract your own street from it, one building at a time.

What it means for flats in London

A great many London flats were never built as flats: they are floors of Victorian and Edwardian terraces that have been split up, often with rooms at the front and back facing opposite ways. Red-brick mansion blocks often wrap round inner lightwells, and a room that looks into one gets little direct sun whatever its compass bearing, while a basement flat below pavement level is the first to lose the low winter sun. The Thames helps too: through much of the centre it runs roughly west to east, so a river view from the north bank faces south across open water, while one from the south bank faces north.

• Picking a direction. Main rooms or a balcony aimed anywhere from south-east round to south-west catch the winter sun. An east aspect gives you sun over breakfast and a west one sun after work; north is the steady, even side, with direct sun only at the two ends of a summer day.
• Picking a floor. Measure the street wall to wall: say 20 m (66 ft), with a five-storey block 15 m (49 ft) high facing you. With the noon sun only about 15° up on 21 December, its shadow runs about 56 m (182 ft), close to three times the street's width, and on your side the facade stays in shade up to about 9.6 m. Number the ground floor storey 1 and allow 3 m a storey: storeys 1 to 3 then get no sun at midday on the shortest day, and storey 4 is the lowest that does. By 21 March things look up: at about 19 m the shadow falls short of the street's far side, and noon sun reaches every floor.
• The balcony overhead. A balcony above a south window works like a summer sunshade: the June sun at about 62° comes down steeply and is cut off, while the 15° winter sun slides in under the slab. Put the balcony on the west side instead and it has sun until sunset, which in June is after 21:00.
• The garden out the back. At noon on 21 December a house 6 m to the eaves casts roughly 22 m of shade, all of it pointing north. Behind a London terrace that means a north facing garden can spend most of midwinter in its own house's shadow, while a south facing one stays sunny next to the house unless a terrace or a tall fence to its south throws a shadow as long across it. Midsummer is different: the June noon shadow is about 3 m, barely past the back door.

Check your own window in London in 3 steps

For a London window, Flatwalk's free Sun at your window tool adds up the hours of direct sun once the buildings, trees and ground nearby are in the picture. For London it works from measured data, with building heights, tree crowns and ground heights from Environment Agency LiDAR (2022), so the mansion block across your road is as tall in the model as it is in life.

1. Pin down the building. In the box under "See the sun at your window", enter your London address and find your roof on the satellite map. Choose A whole house, or choose A flat and then Your floor.
2. Mark the windows. Walls come labelled by direction, so the front of a terrace might read "South wall · sun side". Tap that wall and then the window's spot on it, or drag along it to draw the window.
3. Run it. The December test is See my sun followed by Shortest day. Start with the hours of direct sun, move on to the 12 month bars, and finish with "What takes your sun". Typical weather then shows the same hours with ordinary cloud allowed for.

What it cannot tell you

• A model, not a meter reading. The hours are a calculation, from London's mapping and the position of the sun, rather than a reading taken with a meter at your window.
• Built or felled lately. London builds fast: anything that went up after the map data, and any tree planted or cut down since about 2017 to 2019, is shown wrongly or not at all. Correct it through Something off?, by fixing a height or adding a building or a tree.
• Tomorrow's weather. The cloud in Typical weather is a monthly average over the years 2005 to 2023. It forecasts nothing, and at one particular window it may be about 10 to 15% out.
• Anything but windows. A lawn, the floor of a terrace and a roof meant for solar panels are all outside what it measures.
• Legal weight. It will not stand up in a dispute with a neighbour: it is not a certified report, and it is not a right to light survey.
• Fine detail. Frames, tint on the glass and the shape of your own roof are not modelled, and the outline on the map can sit a metre away from where the wall really is.

Try it free: your London address, your floor, your window

What Flatwalk does that older planners skip

Lighting after dark

When the sun has gone, add ceiling lights, lamps and LED strips and find the corners of the flat that still need them.

Your street in 3D

Type the address and your own street is drawn in 3D, buildings and all, wherever the map covers it.

The sun where you live

Real sunshine for any date and hour at your address, and the length of time each room spends in direct sun.

A sofa in your actual room

Point the camera at the room, live or in a photo, and one piece of furniture stands on your floor at true size, as it would after delivery.

The fine print of a home

Sash or casement, galley kitchen or fitted wardrobe: window and door types, kitchens, wardrobes and bathrooms are all built piece by piece.

One-thumb control

A single finger drags the hour along, and the light moves across the rooms as it goes.

Swipe for more. Every picture is the app itself.

One flat, free

Questions people ask

What is the sun path in London? Low and short in winter, high and long in summer. On 21 December it comes up in the southeast, crosses the southern sky at about 15° at midday and sets in the southwest; on 21 June it comes up in the northeast, peaks at about 62° at midday and sets in the northwest. Day and night come closest to even around 21 March and 23 September, and then the sun rises and sets near due east and due west.

What time is sunrise and sunset in London in December? London's shortest day, 21 December 2026, opens with sunrise at 8:03 and closes with sunset at 15:53 GMT, a span of 7h 50m. London's earliest sunsets, about 15:51, come in mid-December, but the mornings keep getting darker until the end of the month, when sunrise reaches about 8:06.

Where does the sun rise and set in London? Bearings on 21 December: about 128° for sunrise, southeast, and about 232° for sunset, southwest. By 21 June the rising point has crept round to about 49° (northeast) and the setting point to about 311° (northwest).

Which way should my flat face in London? Aim for anything between south-east and south-west: that gets the most sun over a year, and especially in winter. If you are out all day and home in the evening, west is kind; if you are up with the light, east. Then check the far side of the road, because on the shortest day the bottom three floors lose their midday sun to any five-storey block across a 20 m street.

How high is the sun in London in winter? From mid-November to mid-January it stays at or below about 20° even at midday, bottoming out at about 15° on 21 December. A simple test from your chair: if the building opposite rises more than 15° above your window, it hides the midday sun.