August bank holiday

Summer bank holiday to 2035

From Lubbock's day to the late summer Monday

The Bank Holidays Act 1871, introduced by the banker and MP Sir John Lubbock, created four bank holidays in England, Wales and Ireland: Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the first Monday in August and Boxing Day. The August Monday became known for a time as St Lubbock's Day, and it was the one most associated with day trips to the seaside. Scotland's list in the same Act included the first Monday in August too.

In 1965 the government tried moving the English August holiday to the end of the month, to stretch the summer and spread the crowds. The change was kept and written into the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, whose Schedule 1 names the last Monday in August for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the first Monday in August for Scotland. mygov.scot lists the Scottish date with the other national holidays.

The long autumn

For England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the August holiday opens the longest stretch of the year without a bank holiday: almost four months to Christmas. Scotland breaks it with St Andrew's Day on 30 November. The table shows the exact number of days each year. For anyone planning leave, the autumn is where annual leave days go furthest, because nothing else is closed and travel prices fall after the school holidays.

What happens on the weekend

The August bank holiday weekend in England is the weekend of the Notting Hill Carnival in London and of several large music festivals, and one of the busiest weekends of the year on the roads and railways. Network Rail often schedules engineering work on bank holiday weekends, so check journeys in advance. Shops, attractions and pubs are mostly open; banks, Royal Mail letter deliveries and public offices are closed on the Monday. The simulator under the summary compares the Scottish and English lists for any year, and the May bank holidays page covers the two Mondays before it.

Payday often falls close to the August bank holiday. If the last working day of the month is the Friday before the bank holiday, or if the month ends during the weekend, employers who pay on the last working day bring payment forward. The working days calculator gives the last working day of any month.

The summer bank holiday also marks the end of the school holidays in England and Wales, as most schools return in the first week of September.