Time Difference Between London and Toronto

Toronto sits 5h behind London for most of the year, which makes the meeting band the familiar transatlantic one. London's 2 to 5 in the afternoon is Toronto's 9 AM to noon, and outside those hours the day comes apart. Toronto's own afternoon finds London empty. Markets get a tighter version of the same problem. The London Stock Exchange closes at 4:30 PM UK time, which is 11:30 in the Toronto morning, and the two exchanges therefore trade alongside each other for about two hours a day. If you are in Toronto and need an answer from London today, ask before lunch.

Both cities change their clocks a few weeks apart in spring, and the gap narrows to 4h in between. Toronto goes forward on the second Sunday of March while London waits until the last Sunday of March, so the days between run at 4h. Autumn gives a shorter version, with London falling back on the last Sunday of October and Toronto not until the first Sunday of November, which makes that week the second mismatch. During those weeks a meeting pinned to 2 PM London shows up at 10 AM in Toronto instead of 9, and one pinned to 9 AM Toronto shows up at 1 PM in London instead of 2. Whichever calendar created the event wins.

Toronto to Heathrow is about seven hours eastbound and closer to eight on the way back, which makes the overnight east a genuinely short night. You board after dinner, they feed you anyway, and you land at breakfast on maybe four hours of sleep. People underestimate this flight because seven hours sounds civilized. Five hours of difference is still five hours, and the first London morning is unpleasant. Westbound is the kind direction, since you get the hours back and can usually hold out until a normal bedtime. Plenty of people run this as a two-night trip and simply absorb the damage, which holds up once a quarter and stops holding up once a month. Keep the first day home light.