What to wear in London in October: pack for rain first

Pack for rain first: London's October averages about 16°C by day, 9°C at night and 11 days of rain. On the Met Office's Heathrow figures, the cold waits for November. The rain does not.

On 25 September a reader on Reddit put it plainly: "Will travel to London this fall. Any British bags I should go and look for?" The post asked for "lesser known local brands or artisan shops", and the same instinct works for clothes: the trench, the boot and the knit all have British makers.

A puffer has its defenders, and by November they are right. In October the Met Office counts 0.33 days of air frost. Dress for the shower instead: a coat that sheds one, boots that take a wet pavement and a knit under both.

Quick facts

• Weather: about 16°C (60.5°F) by day and 9°C (47.8°F) at night, Met Office averages for 1991 to 2020
• Rain: 65 mm over about 11 days, against about 50 mm on 8 days in September
• Sunshine: 115 hours across the month
• Clocks: back one hour at 2am on Sunday 25 October 2026
• Shops: 37 London boutiques listed by street, 7 of them in Mayfair
• On within: 26 pairs of Guidi boots and 110 men's sweaters, priced in CAD and shipping to the UK, read 27 September 2026

For the rain, a trench and a London umbrella

"In 1901, Burberry were asked to design a lightweight raincoat for soldiers," the National Army Museum says. Its shoulder epaulettes let an officer show his rank. Enlisted men were not permitted to wear one, so it became a status symbol, popular with officers in the trenches from 1914 to 1918.

The cloth came first. Thomas Burberry patented gabardine in 1879, the V&A notes, and the house still calls it shower resistant.

Burberry's Heritage trench coats are crafted in Yorkshire and finished by hand. Each shape is named after a part of London (there is a Mayfair, for anyone who wants the coat to match the shopping).

The umbrella has its own address. James Smith & Sons was founded in 1830 at Foubert's Place, off Regent Street, making umbrellas in a workshop at the back and selling them at the front.

Samuel Fox invented the lightweight steel frame in 1851, and James Smith II was one of the first makers to use it. His business grew until he moved it to 53 New Oxford Street, where the shop remains, almost unchanged, behind a Victorian front.

For the walk, a boot that takes a wet pavement

You will walk further than you planned.

On 1 April 1960 the first Dr. Martens boot came off the factory line, and Bill Griggs named it the 1460 after the date. It is an 8 eye boot with yellow welt stitching and a grooved sole edge. The black and yellow heel loop carries the AirWair name, lettered from Griggs's own handwriting.

Tricker's is older. Founded in 1829, it calls itself the oldest established shoemaker in Britain, and each pair takes 265 processes over 8 weeks in Northampton. Its water resistant country boots, Tricker's says, follow a model boot made in 1848 by Walter James Barltrop, aged 7.

In Shoreditch, reviewers of Son of a Stag on Dray Walk name denim 54 times and Paraboots 5. The boots on the Guidi boots shelf are leather in the upper, the lining and the sole. They run from CAD 679 to 2,650, and the 310 Front Zip Boot in black is CAD 1,900, about £1,014.

For the park, a jacket you can rewax

Barbour began in 1894 in the Market Place at South Shields. John Barbour, a Scot, supplied oilskins to protect sailors and fishermen from "the worst of the British weather".

Margaret Barbour designed the Bedale for riders in 1980 and the Beaufort in 1983, whose full length rear pocket was "used for newspapers or small groceries". Both are still made by hand in Simonside, South Shields. The same factory rewaxes and mends them by hand, which is the best argument for owning one.

Wear it to the weekend shops. Couverture & The Garbstore on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill opens at 10:00 on Saturday, and reviewers name its brand selection 16 times. Trunk Clothiers on Chiltern Street keeps Sunday hours, 12:00 to 17:00.

For the evening, a knit

At Lea Bridge, in Derbyshire, parts of Peter Nightingale's cotton mill survive inside John Smedley's works. Derbyshire's historic record calls the 1783 mill probably the oldest in the country with a continuous record of spinning. John Smedley himself, who lived from 1803 to 1874, mixed cotton and merino wool in experiments in the 1820s.

A knit carries you from the gallery to dinner. In Soho, Machine-A on Brewer Street is open until 20:00 from Monday to Saturday, late enough to stop in on the way. Reviewers name cashmere at Alex Eagle Studio on Lexington Street and at Aime London on Ledbury Road.

Read how to judge cashmere before you pay before any of it. On the shelf, the INTO THE EAST turtleneck in brown is 100% wool at CAD 430. Undercover's hooded stole in beige, 70% wool and 30% cashmere, is CAD 950 (about £507), and both ship to the UK.

In October the coat and the boots are the outfit. Everything under them is a knit.

Where to shop, and when the light goes

For designer vintage, Rellik on Golborne Road closes on Mondays, and Nordic Poetry on Bethnal Green Road stays open until 20:00 on Thursdays. On Savile Row, Huntsman and Edward Sexton both close on Sundays. The London boutiques directory has the rest by neighbourhood, and London designer boutiques goes shop by shop.

The clocks go back at 2am on Sunday 25 October, and from then the evenings go dark an hour earlier. Halloween falls on the Saturday after, the 31st.

The within pieces above ship from a Toronto boutique by Canada Post, UPS or DHL. They travel duty unpaid, so any duties are yours on arrival, and shipping is free from CAD 800.

The Reddit reader was right about bags, and it holds for coats. Buy what a place makes for its own weather, and it keeps working long after the trip.

Common questions

Is London cold in October?

No, London is mild in October: about 16°C by day and 9°C at night on the Met Office's averages. November is the cold month, at about 11°C by day and 5°C at night.

Does it rain a lot in London in October?

Yes, October is wetter than September: about 65 mm of rain across about 11 days, against about 50 mm on 8 days in September. Carry an umbrella and a coat that sheds a shower.

What shoes to wear in London in October?

Wear leather boots you can walk in all day, since rain falls on about 11 days of the month. Tricker's builds its country boots to be water resistant, and shoe construction: what resoles and what will not shows which boots can take a new sole after a wet season.

Every business above is independent, was verified open as of August 2026, and nobody paid to be here. If one has closed or moved, tell us at hello@shopwithin.co and we will fix it.

within opens October 1. Toronto is open now, with the cities in this journal to follow. The waiting list is open in every one of them.