Prayer Times Across British Cities: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford

Britain uses a single clock from Land's End to Shetland, but the sun does not. Between the eastern and western edges of the country there is nearly half an hour of solar time, and between the south coast and northern Scotland the summer days differ by hours. A timetable printed for the wrong city can be meaningfully wrong.

Longitude shifts everything evenly

One degree of longitude equals four minutes of solar time. London sits at 0.13 degrees west, Cardiff at 3.18 west and Belfast at 5.93 west — so the sun reaches Belfast about twenty-three minutes after London. Every prayer of the day shifts by that same amount. Going the other way, Norwich and the east coast run several minutes ahead of London.

Latitude spreads times apart

Latitude behaves differently: it does not shift the whole day, it stretches it. In June, Glasgow at 55.9 degrees north has a much longer day than London at 51.5, so Fajr comes earlier and Isha later there. In December the reverse holds and Glasgow's day is markedly shorter. Around the equinoxes the difference nearly disappears.

The practical rule

Use your own city's table rather than London's. The gap between Manchester and London is larger than the gap between two calculation methods for most of the year — which means choosing the right location matters more than choosing the right method.

• London Prayer Times
• Birmingham Prayer Times
• Manchester Prayer Times
• Bradford Prayer Times
• Leicester Prayer Times
• Glasgow Prayer Times

Where the big communities are

British Muslim communities are heavily concentrated in particular towns and cities. London holds the largest single population; Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester, Leicester, Luton, Blackburn, Oldham and Preston all have substantial communities relative to their size. Several of these are mid-sized towns that national listings often skip because they rank by total population rather than by community.

• Luton Prayer Times
• Oldham Prayer Times
• Preston Prayer Times
• Coventry Prayer Times

Within a city, don't worry

Across the width of Greater London there is about half a degree of longitude — around two minutes. That is smaller than the precaution margin most timetables build in. A city-wide table is perfectly adequate; you do not need a borough-level one.

Two quick checks on any timetable

First, Dhuhr should fall close to the midpoint between sunrise and sunset; if it does not, the longitude or time zone is wrong. Second, the printed sunrise should match what you see out of the window within a minute or two. If both hold, the table is computed for the right place.