Best time to visit London

London works in every month because so much of it happens indoors and the biggest museums are free. The weather is rarely extreme: summers are warm rather than hot, winters grey rather than freezing, and rain is spread through the year rather than concentrated in a season. The real variables are daylight and crowds. May, June and September give long evenings, parks in full leaf and queues that are still bearable; July and August bring the longest waits at the Tower and the London Eye, and the school summer holidays from late July push hotel prices to their peak.

Winter is cheap and atmospheric, with Christmas lights from mid-November and the sales from Boxing Day, but afternoons are dark by four. Three rules hold all year: the Tube does not run on Christmas Day, bank holidays close banks but not museums, and the clocks change on the last Sunday of March and October.