London in October: Weather, Events and the Best Tours
Written and checked by the Best London Tours editorial team. .
October is the wettest month in London, averaging 77mm of rain across twelve wet days, and the month the evenings collapse. The clocks go back on Sunday 25 October and sunset moves from 17:48 to 16:46 overnight. Plan indoor and early, and October is one of the most atmospheric months of the year.
Quick pick: the best London tours in October
| # | Tour | Best for | Duration | From | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London Dungeon | Halloween month, entirely indoors | 1.5-2 hours | £24 | 4.6 (4,666) |
| 2 | Madame Tussauds | A guaranteed dry two and a half hours | 2.5 hours | £24 | 4.6 (23,025) |
| 3 | Harry Potter Studio Tour | Filling a whole wet day, and half-term | 7-9 hours | £85 | 4.6 (10,822) |
| 4 | Tower of London | The last month of summer opening hours | 2-3 hours | £37 | 4.6 (31,489) |
| 5 | London Ghost Tour | The first month the dark actually helps | 2 hours | £25 | 4.9 (809) |
| 6 | Jack the Ripper Tour | Whitechapel at £15, in the right conditions | 1.5 hours | £15 | 4.3 (430) |
| 7 | Churchill War Rooms | Being underground while it rains | 2.5 hours | £67 | 4.5 (1,001) |
| 8 | SEA LIFE London | Half-term with young children, indoors | 1.5-2 hours | £25 | 4.4 (3,678) |
| 9 | Natural History Museum Tour | A guided route through a free museum | 2.5 hours | £65 | 4.9 (93) |
| 10 | Thames River Cruise | Autumn colour along the river, before 16:00 | 1-2 hours | £17 | 4.5 (24,711) |
Prices, ratings and review counts verified against live GetYourGuide listings on 28 July 2026. Duration varies by the option you choose at checkout.
Is October a good time to visit London?
October works if you accept that it is an indoor month with outdoor moments, not the other way round. It is the wettest month of the year at 77mm and the clock change on 25 October takes an hour off your evenings in a single night. In exchange, crowds and prices fall away from their summer levels.
October is two different months either side of one Sunday. Until the 24th you still have usable evenings, with sunset around 17:50 and average highs holding near 15.5C. From the 25th, when the clocks go back, sunset is before 16:50 and falls to 16:35 by the 31st. Nothing about the weather changes on that date, but everything about how you can schedule a day does.
The rainfall figure is the other thing to plan around. At 77mm across twelve wet days, October is the wettest month in the London year on the ten-year mean, comfortably ahead of November and December at 66mm each. That is not a reason to stay away, but it is a reason to build the itinerary around indoor anchors and treat outdoor plans as the flexible part.
What you get in return is the best atmosphere of the year. London does autumn genuinely well: Hyde Park, Regents Park and Greenwich turn, the light goes long and low, and the evening walking tours stop being a novelty and start being the right way to see the city. This is the first month in this guide when a ghost walk at 19:00 is a genuinely dark walk.
London weather in October
October averages 15.5C highs and 8.8C lows with 77mm of rain over twelve wet days, the wettest month of the year. Sunset is 18:07 on the 15th, but the clocks go back on 25 October and the evening loses 1 hour 2 minutes overnight, from 17:48 on the 24th to 16:46 on the 25th.
| Measure | October | Annual context |
|---|---|---|
| Average high | 15.5C | Ranges from 7.7C in January to 22.6C in July |
| Average low | 8.8C | Ranges from 1.7C in January to 13.9C in July |
| Rainfall | 77mm | Driest is April at 40mm, wettest is October at 77mm |
| Wet days (1mm or more) | 12 days | Fewest in April at 10, most in March at 13 |
| Daylight, mid-month | 10h 43m | From 7h 52m in mid-December to 16h 36m in mid-June |
| Sunrise and sunset, 15th | 07:24 to 18:07 | From 15:51 in mid-December to 21:19 in mid-June |
| Change across the month | loses 1h 54m | Clocks go back on 25 October 2026 and forward on 28 March 2027 |
Temperature, rainfall and wet days are the 2015 to 2024 means from ERA5 reanalysis for central London, 2015 to 2024, via the Open-Meteo historical archive. Daylight, sunrise and sunset are for the 15th, from timeanddate.com sunrise and sunset tables for London.
The clock change is the single most useful scheduling fact on this page. British Summer Time ends at 02:00 on Sunday 25 October 2026. Sunset on Saturday 24 October is 17:48; on Sunday 25 October it is 16:46. You do not lose daylight, you move it to the morning, but for a visitor the practical effect is that anything you wanted to do outdoors after work-time in the last week of October has to happen an hour earlier than you planned.
Rainfall at 77mm is the annual peak and it is 20mm above the October figure most people expect. Twelve wet days out of thirty-one means roughly two days in five see a millimetre or more. The saving grace is that London rain is rarely heavy: the total falls across many hours rather than a few, so a waterproof coat usually beats cancelling.
Temperature falls steadily rather than sharply. The 15.5C mean high is still comfortable for walking in daylight, but the 8.8C mean low is the point at which sitting outside stops being pleasant. Open-deck cruises and open-top buses are still running and still perfectly enjoyable in the middle of the day; they are not enjoyable at 18:00.
Crowds, prices and what to book ahead
October is quiet except for one week. The October half-term break fills the family attractions to summer levels for seven days, and the Halloween programming at the Dungeon and the Tower pushes demand higher still. Outside half-term this is one of the easiest months to get a good timed slot.
English school half-term falls in late October and is the busiest week of the autumn at the family attractions. Exact dates vary between local authorities and between state and independent schools, which is why we do not print a single date range here. Check the specific week before you book if you want either to avoid it or to travel within it.
Halloween drives real demand in London, and it lands on a Saturday in 2026, which concentrates it further. The London Dungeon, the ghost walks and the Jack the Ripper tour all run at their annual peak in the last ten days of the month, and the evening slots go first. If a dark-themed evening is part of the plan, this is the one thing in October worth booking a fortnight out.
Everything else eases. Hotel rates in zone 1 fall from their summer level, the Tower and St Paul's are noticeably calmer on a weekday than in September, and the free national museums are pleasant again. If you can travel in the first or second week of October, you get the autumn atmosphere without the half-term volume.
The best tours in London in October
The October ten is rebuilt around weather and darkness. This is the wettest month of the year, so the indoor attractions that sat out August and September come back at the top. The evening walks move up because 16:46 sunsets from the 25th make them genuinely dark for the first time.
1. London Dungeon
4.6 out of 5 from 4,666 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £24 • 1.5-2 hours
The clearest seasonal re-rank on this page: up from outside the ten in August to first here. It is indoors in the wettest month of the year, it is the city's dedicated dark-history attraction in the month London leans into that, and it sits on the South Bank a few minutes from three other indoor options.
Best for in October: Halloween month, entirely indoors
2. Madame Tussauds
4.6 out of 5 from 23,025 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £24 • 2.5 hours
Twenty-three thousand reviews and a completely weatherproof format. In August we ranked it out because using a dry summer day indoors is a waste; in a month with twelve wet days it is exactly the right hedge to have booked.
Best for in October: A guaranteed dry two and a half hours
3. Harry Potter Studio Tour
4.6 out of 5 from 10,822 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £85 • 7-9 hours
Moves back up from tenth in September. A full indoor day at Leavesden is the single best answer to a 77mm month, and half-term demand makes it the most likely thing in this list to sell out. Book it before you travel.
Best for in October: Filling a whole wet day, and half-term
4. Tower of London
4.6 out of 5 from 31,489 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £37 • 2-3 hours
October is the last month of the Tower's longer summer schedule before the winter pattern takes over in November. A large part of the visit is outdoors on the wharf and the walls, so aim for a dry morning and be aware the site is at its wettest underfoot in the wettest month of the year.
Best for in October: The last month of summer opening hours
5. London Ghost Tour
4.9 out of 5 from 809 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £25 • 2 hours
Rated 4.9, the highest in our London list, and ranked up hard for October. From the 25th, sunset is before 16:50, so a 19:00 walk is properly dark rather than merely dim. In June the same tour finishes in broad daylight.
Best for in October: The first month the dark actually helps
6. Jack the Ripper Tour
4.3 out of 5 from 430 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £15 • 1.5 hours
The cheapest thing in our whole London list and the one most improved by the season. The Whitechapel streets work in October in a way they simply do not in July, when the walk ends under a bright evening sky.
Best for in October: Whitechapel at £15, in the right conditions
7. Churchill War Rooms
4.5 out of 5 from 1,001 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £67 • 2.5 hours
Returns to the ranking after two months out. The Cabinet War Rooms are below ground and entirely weather-independent, which is worth more in the wettest month than in any other. Note that GetYourGuide lists this experience as not suitable for wheelchair users.
Best for in October: Being underground while it rains
8. SEA LIFE London
4.4 out of 5 from 3,678 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £25 • 1.5-2 hours
Ranked in for the half-term week specifically. It is indoor, it is a manageable ninety minutes to two hours for small children, and it is on the South Bank next to the Dungeon, so a wet day can be planned as a single walk-free block.
Best for in October: Half-term with young children, indoors
9. Natural History Museum Tour
4.9 out of 5 from 93 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £65 • 2.5 hours
Rated 4.9 from a small review base. The museum itself is free, so what you are buying is the guiding, and October is the month that trade-off makes the most sense: South Kensington in the rain is a much better place to be than most of London.
Best for in October: A guided route through a free museum
10. Thames River Cruise
4.5 out of 5 from 24,711 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £17 • 1-2 hours
Holds a place but with a hard time constraint. The Thames between Westminster and Greenwich in late-October light is one of the best sights in the city; after the clock change, that means a departure before about 15:30 rather than after work.
Best for in October: Autumn colour along the river, before 16:00
Buckingham Palace leaves the ranking here and does not return in this guide. The State Rooms closed on 27 September and the 2027 season dates were not published when this was written, so from October onwards it appears only in the closures table. The bike, photography and open-top bus products also drop out: at twelve wet days and a 16:46 sunset from the 25th, none of them can be recommended honestly as a top-ten October choice.
Events and festivals in October 2026
The date that matters most in October is not an event at all: the clocks go back on Sunday 25 October and evening daylight drops by 1 hour 2 minutes overnight. Around it sit Diwali, the school half-term week and Halloween on Saturday 31 October.
| Event | Dates | Where | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clocks go back, British Summer Time ends | Sunday 25 October, 02:00 | Nationwide | Not applicable |
| Diwali | Late October, celebrations citywide | Trafalgar Square and across London | Free to attend |
| School half-term | Late October, exact week varies by authority | Family attractions at peak | Not applicable |
| Halloween | Saturday 31 October | Citywide, strongest at the South Bank attractions | Mostly ticketed |
| Changing the Guard | Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays | Buckingham Palace forecourt | Free to watch |
Take the clock change seriously when you plan the last week. Anything you had pencilled in for a 17:30 outdoor start needs to move to 16:00 or become an indoor plan. The single most common October mistake we see is a river cruise or an open-top bus booked for a late-afternoon slot in the final week and spent in the dark.
Diwali is celebrated across London in late October with a large free public event in Trafalgar Square as its centre. The exact date moves each year with the lunar calendar and the Trafalgar Square event is usually held on the nearest weekend rather than the day itself, so check the Mayor of London listings for the current year rather than assuming a date.
Halloween falls on a Saturday in 2026, which pushes the whole weekend rather than a single evening. The London Dungeon, the ghost walks and the Ripper tour are the products that feel it, and evening slots in the last week of the month are the first to sell. Nothing else in our list is materially affected.
What is closed in October
Buckingham Palace is now shut for the season, having closed on 27 September, and stays shut through this guide. The Tower of London is on its final month of summer opening. The bigger practical change is the clock change on 25 October, which effectively closes the outdoor day at 16:46.
| Site or service | Closed | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Buckingham Palace State Rooms | All month | The summer season ended on 27 September. Only a limited number of ticketed guided tours run on selected dates for the rest of the year. |
| Evening daylight | From 16:46 on 25 October | Not a closure but it behaves like one. Sunset falls from 17:48 on 24 October to 16:46 on the 25th, and 16:35 by the 31st. |
| Tower of London summer hours | End of October | The Tower runs longer summer hours through October and switches to its winter pattern from November. It returns to summer hours on 1 March. |
| Changing the Guard | Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays | Monday, Wednesday and Friday only. Cancellation in heavy rain is more likely in October than in the summer months. |
| Open-air seasonal venues | Transitioning | Outdoor summer bars, lidos and pop-ups wind down through October. The winter rinks and markets do not open until November. |
Buckingham Palace opening season: Royal Collection Trust, visiting Buckingham Palace. Changing the Guard days are published a month at a time on the Household Division Changing the Guard listing, and the ceremony can be cancelled at short notice in bad weather.
October sits in a genuine gap in London's calendar. The summer outdoor programme has finished and the Christmas programme has not started: the Somerset House ice rink opens on 11 November, Christmas at Kew from 13 November, and Hogwarts in the Snow at the Warner Bros Studio Tour from 14 November. If a winter-lit London is what you are picturing, this is the month before it.
The Tower of London is in its last month of longer summer opening. From November it runs the winter pattern, and it does not return to summer hours until 1 March. In practice that means an October afternoon arrival still works and a December one does not, so if the Tower is on your list and your trip is late in the year, October is the better half of the choice.
One thing we cannot tell you is the exact half-term week. English school holiday dates are set by individual local authorities and academy trusts rather than nationally, so there is no single correct date range to print. If avoiding or targeting half-term matters to your booking, check the relevant council's published term dates.
What to wear and pack for London in October
October is the month to bring proper waterproofs. At 77mm across twelve wet days it is the wettest month of the year, and after the clocks change on the 25th you will be walking in the dark from about 17:00. Waterproof shoes and something with a hood do more for an October trip than anything else you can pack.
A hood beats an umbrella in a London October. The rain often arrives with enough wind to make an umbrella a liability on an open river bank or a bridge, and both are places you will be. A coat that can handle several hours of steady drizzle is the single most useful item for this month.
Feet are the other thing. Twelve wet days means the pavements rarely dry out completely and the parks stay soft. Mesh trainers are miserable by the second day. Something with a water-resistant upper, worn in before you travel, changes the experience of the month more than any other decision.
- A waterproof coat with a hood, for the wettest month of the year
- Water-resistant shoes, worn in before the trip
- A small torch or your phone light for evening walking tours after the clock change
- A warm layer for the 8.8C average low
- At least two booked indoor attractions to fall back on
How we chose these tours
October is ranked on two hard numbers: 77mm of rain, the wettest month of the year, and a sunset that moves from 17:48 to 16:46 overnight on the 25th. Four indoor attractions that were ranked out in August come back at the top, and the two evening walks move up because the month finally makes them dark.
- Popularity first. The base order is the verified review count on the live GetYourGuide listing, which is the only booking signal we can check independently.
- Then seasonal fit. A tour moves up or down for a specific, stated reason tied to October: temperature, wet days, sunset time, school holidays or a closure. Every move is explained in the entry itself rather than left implied.
- Closed means out. If an attraction is shut for the month, it does not appear in the ten at any rank, however popular it is. We name it in the closures table instead so you can plan around it.
- Nothing is invented. Prices, star ratings and review counts come from the live product page, checked on 28 July 2026. We do not publish an opening time, closure or event date we could not confirm, and we say so where we could not.
- We earn a commission. Booking links go to GetYourGuide and pay us if you book. That does not change the ranking: the review counts are public and you can check every one of them against the listing.
FAQs about London in October
When do the clocks go back in London in 2026?
At 02:00 on Sunday 25 October 2026, when British Summer Time ends and clocks go back one hour to GMT. The practical effect is immediate: sunset is 17:48 on Saturday 24 October and 16:46 on Sunday 25 October, a drop of 1 hour 2 minutes overnight, falling further to 16:35 by 31 October.
Is October the wettest month in London?
Yes. On the ten-year mean for 2015 to 2024, October averages 77mm of rain across twelve wet days, more than any other month. November and December both average 66mm and September 64mm. The rain is rarely heavy, though: the total falls across many hours rather than a few, so a good waterproof coat is usually a better response than cancelling a plan.
Is Buckingham Palace open in October?
The State Rooms are not. The summer season ended on 27 September and does not resume until the following summer. A limited number of ticketed guided tours run on selected dates through the rest of the year, but general State Rooms visiting is closed. Changing the Guard continues outside the Palace on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays regardless.
What is there to do in London in the rain in October?
The strongest wet-day options in our list are all indoors and all bookable: the Warner Bros Studio Tour fills an entire day, Madame Tussauds and the London Dungeon are two to three hours each on the same South Bank stretch as SEA LIFE, and the Churchill War Rooms are underground. London's national museums, including the Natural History Museum and the British Museum, are also free to enter in every month.
Are ghost tours better in October?
Materially, yes, and it is a scheduling fact rather than a marketing one. From 25 October sunset is before 16:50, so a 19:00 ghost or Jack the Ripper walk takes place in genuine darkness. The same tour in June finishes in broad daylight with sunset after 21:15. October is also the peak demand month for these walks, so evening slots sell out.
Is October a cheap month to visit London?
Cheaper than August and September outside the half-term week, but not as cheap as January or February. Hotel rates in zone 1 come off the summer peak from the start of the month. The exception is the half-term week and the Halloween weekend, when family attractions and dark-themed evening tours run at summer prices and summer capacity.