Postal codes
used in the
United Kingdom
,
British Overseas Territories
and
Crown dependencies
are known as
postcodes
(originally, postal codes).
[1]
They are
alphanumeric
and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the
General Post Office
(
Royal Mail
).
[2]
A full postcode is known as a "postcode unit" and designates an area with several addresses or a single major delivery point.
[1]
Overview
[
edit
]
Structure
[
edit
]
The structure of a postcode is two alphanumeric codes that show, first, the Post Town and, second, a small group of addresses in that post town. The first alphanumeric code (the Outward code or Outcode) has between two and four characters and the second (the Inward Code or Incode) always has three characters. The Outcode indicates the postcode area and postcode district. It consists of one or two letters, followed by one digit, two digits, or one digit and one letter. This is followed by a space and then the Incode which indicates the postcode sector and delivery point (usually a group of around 15 addresses, but sometimes more). The incode (always three characters), starts with a number (denoting a sector within the district), and ends with two letters (denoting delivery points which are allocated to streets, sides of a street or individual properties).
Postcode Area Names
[
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]
Postcode areas are usually, but not always, named after a major town or city ? such as B for Birmingham. Some are named after a smaller town (e.g. Southall postcode area is UB after Uxbridge) or a combination of towns (e.g. SM appears to be named after Sutton and Morden). A small number are geographic in nature ? such as HS for the Outer Hebrides, FY for Fylde (the region around Blackpool) and ME for the Medway conurbation, with Rochester as its main post town. In the case of London (a Post Town), there is not a single "London" postcode area; rather there are eight (N,E,EC,SE,SW,W,WC and NW) reflecting the preceding system for coding London based on compass points. In the case of Northern Ireland, the entire province has a single postcode area BT (based on Belfast BT). Postcodes generally do not align with historical county or local authority boundaries, and can also cross national boundaries (e.g. CH and TD postcode areas).
Postcode Districts and Numbering
[
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]
The initial system of named postal districts, developed in London and other large cities from 1857, evolved towards the present form: in 1917 London was split into broad numbered subdivisions, and this extended to the other cities in 1934.
Each postcode area contains a number of post towns and postcode districts. Example: a sizeable part of southern England is covered by the GU postcode area, named after the town of Guildford. Guildford itself consists of postal districts GU1 and GU2. Nearby Woking, a major commuter town?10 km away?is a post town within the postcode district GU22.
As a general rule, the central part of the town/city the postcode area is named after will have the number 1 e.g. B1 (Birmingham) ? but there a limited number of postcode areas that start 0 or 10, e.g. SL0 and AB10. Large post towns are generally numbered from the centre outward such that outlying parts have higher numbered districts. In most post towns, the postcode "aa1 1AA" was allocated to the crown or principal post office. These are increasingly defunct, as post offices have closed or moved.
Alternatively, but less commonly, post towns and postcode districts within the area may be numbered according to: geographical direction (e.g. the Outer Hebrides area HS, the districts are numbered from north to south); alphabetical order of district sub-offices (particularly in London (e.g. E2 is Bethnal Green, E3 is Bow, E4 is Chingford etc.); and clusters, particularly if the postcode area encompasses several major towns or cities (e.g. S postcode area with Sheffield S1-S36, Chesterfield S40-S49, Rotherham S60-S65, Barnsley S70-S75 and Worksop S80-S81). Accordingly, the centrality of a postcode district within a postcode area cannot be reliably inferred from the postcode alone (e.g. SE1 covers a large part of Central London south of the Thames whereas SE2 covers Abbey Wood at the far eastern end of the Elizabeth Line). See
postcode area
.
Numbering of postcode districts is normally consecutive, but this is not universal. Non-consecutive numbering arises when districts are numbered for geographical and/or clustering reasons (e.g. PH postcode area's highest numbered district is PH50 but, within the range of PH1-PH50, the numbers PH27-PH29 and PH45-PH48 are not allocated, so as to maintain a distinct geographical link for each group of allocated numbers).
Postcode use
[
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]
Postcodes have been adopted for a wide range of purposes in addition to aiding the sorting of mail: for calculating insurance premiums, designating destinations in
route planning software
and as the lowest level of aggregation in
census
enumeration. The boundaries of each postcode unit and within these the full address data of currently about 29 million addresses (delivery points) are stored, maintained and periodically updated in the
Postcode Address File
database.
[1]
Theoretically, deliveries can reach their destination using the house number (or name if the house has no number) and postcode alone; however, this is against Royal Mail guidelines, which request the use of a full address.
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Earlier postal districts
[
edit
]
London
[
edit
]
The London post town covers 40% of
Greater London
. On inception (in 1857/8), it was divided into ten postal districts: EC (East Central), WC (West Central), N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW. The S and NE sectors were later abolished. In 1917, as a wartime measure to improve efficiency, each postal district was subdivided into sub-districts each identified by a number; the area served directly by the district head office was allocated the number 1; the other numbers were allocated alphabetically by delivery office, e.g. N2 East Finchley delivery office, N3 Finchley delivery office, N4 Finsbury Park delivery office etc. Since then these sub-districts have changed little.
Some older road signs in Hackney still show the North East (NE) sector/district.
Other large cities and towns
[
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]
Following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, and Manchester and Salford into eight numbered districts in 1867/68.
[4]
In 1917,
Dublin
?then still part of the United Kingdom?was divided into
numbered postal districts
. These continue in use in a modified form by
An Post
, the postal service of the
Republic of Ireland
. In 1923, Glasgow was divided in a similar way to London, with numbered districts preceded by a letter denoting the compass point (C, W, NW, N, E, S, SW, SE).
[4]
In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some predominantly urban areas into numbered districts.
[4]
In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts (short postal codes) in "every provincial town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it". Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay. The pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were "particularly invited" to include the district number in the address at the head of letters.
[5]
A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers. The slogan for the campaign was "For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper". A poster was fixed to every pillar box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district and appealing for the public's co-operation. Every post office in the numbered district was also to display this information. Printers of Christmas cards and stationery were requested to always include district numbers in addresses, and
election agents
for candidates in the upcoming
general election
were asked to ensure they correctly addressed the 100 million items of mail they were expected to post. Businesses were issued with a free booklet containing maps and listings of the correct district number for every street in the ten areas.
[6]
The ten areas were:
[6]
For example,
Toxteth
was
Liverpool 8
. A single numbering sequence was shared by Manchester and Salford: letters would be addressed to Manchester 1 or Salford 7 (lowest digits, respectively). Some Birmingham codes were sub-divided with a letter, such as
Great Barr, Birmingham 22
or
Birmingham 22a
,
[7]
as can still be seen on many older street-name signs.
Modern postcode system
[
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]
The Post Office experimented with electromechanical sorting machines in the late 1950s.
[8]
These devices presented an envelope to an operator, who would press a button indicating which bin to sort the letter into. Postcodes were suggested to increase the efficiency of this process by removing the need for the sorter to remember the correct sorting for as many places.
[9]
In January 1959 the Post Office analysed the results of a survey on public attitudes towards the use of postal codes, choosing a town in which to experiment with codes. The envisaged format was a six-character alphanumeric code with three letters designating the geographical area and three numbers to identify the individual address.
[10]
On 28 July
Ernest Marples
, the
Postmaster General
, announced that
Norwich
had been selected, and that each of the 150,000 private and business addresses would receive a code by October. Norwich had been selected as it already had eight automatic mail sorting machines in use.
[11]
The original Norwich format consisted of "NOR," followed by a space, then a two-digit number (which, unlike the current format, could include a leading zero), and finally a single letter (instead of the two final letters in the current format).
[12]
In October 1965,
Tony Benn
as Postmaster General
[13]
announced that postal coding was to be extended to the rest of the country in the next few years.
[14]
On 1 May 1967 postcodes were introduced in
Croydon
. The many postcodes for central Croydon began with "CRO", while those of the surrounding
post towns
with CR2, CR3 and CR4. The uniform system of a set of three final characters after the space (such as 0AA, known as the inward code) was adopted. This was to be the beginning of a ten-year plan, costing an estimated £24 million. Within two years it was expected that full coding would be used in
Aberdeen
,
Belfast
,
Brighton
,
Bristol
,
Bromley
,
Cardiff
,
Coventry
,
Manchester
,
Newcastle upon Tyne
,
Newport
,
Reading
,
Sheffield
,
Southampton
and the
Western district
of London.
[15]
By 1967, codes had been introduced to Aberdeen, Southampton, Brighton and
Derby
.
[16]
In 1970, codes were introduced to the London Western and
North Western
postal districts.
[17]
In December 1970, much Christmas mail was postmarked with the message "Remember to use the Postal Code" although codes were used to sort mail in only a handful of
sorting offices
.
[18]
During 1971, occupants of addresses began to receive notification of their postcode. Asked in the House of Commons about the completion of the coding exercise, the
Minister of State
for Posts and Telecommunications (whose role superseded that of Postmaster General in 1969),
Sir John Eden
, stated that it was expected to be completed during 1972.
[19]
The scheme was finalised in 1974 when Norwich was completely re-coded but the scheme tested in Croydon was sufficiently close to the final design for it to be retained, with CRO standardised as CR0 (district zero) thus removing the need to create a CR1 district.
[4]
A quirk remained: the central Newport (Gwent) area was allocated NPT at a similar time to Croydon becoming CRO, and surrounding areas were (as today) allocated NP1?NP8. NPT lasted until the end of 1984 when it was recoded NP9.
[20]
Girobank
's GIR 0AA was the last domestic postcode with a fully alphabetical outward code. That code no longer exists in the Royal Mail's PAF system, but was taken over by the bank's current owners,
Santander UK
.
[21]
Adaptation of earlier systems into national system
[
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]
When the national postcode system was introduced, many existing postal districts were incorporated into it, so that postcodes in Toxteth (Liverpool 8) start with L8. The districts in both Manchester and Salford gained M postcodes, so Salford 7 became M7 and so on (and similarly in Brighton and Hove, both using the prefix BN). The old coding lives on in a small number of street signs with (for example) "Salford 7" at the bottom. In other cases, the district numbers were replaced with unrelated numbers. In Glasgow many of its G-prefixed numbers are not used as C1 became G1, W1 became G11, N1 became G21, E1 became G31, S1 became G41, SW1 became G51, and so on. In London (as postally defined), 1917-created postal districts are mapped unchanged to those of today but its much enlarged administrative area, Greater London, was created in April 1965. From that month the remaining 60% of Greater London's area has postcodes referring to 13 other post towns. Additionally, there were too few postcodes to adequately cover districts in central London (particularly in the WC and EC areas), so these were subdivided with a letter suffix rather than being split into new numbered districts so as to retain the familiar codes.
GB postcodes available as OpenData
[
edit
]
Prior to 1 April 2010, the Royal Mail licensed use of the postcode database for a charge of about £4,000 per year.
[22]
Following a campaign and a government consultation in 2009,
[23]
the Ordnance Survey released Code-Point Open, detailing each current postcode in Great Britain together with a geo-code for re-use free of charge under an attribution-only licence (
Open Government Licence
as part of
OS OpenData
).
Postcodes linked to a variety of UK geographies
[
edit
]
The
Office for National Statistics
(ONS Geography) maintains and publishes a series of freely available, downloadable postcode products that link all current and terminated UK postcodes to a range of administrative, health, statistical and other geographies using the Code-Point Open grid reference.
Formatting
[
edit
]
Overview
[
edit
]
The postcodes are alphanumeric, and are variable in length: ranging from six to eight characters (including a space). Each postcode is divided into two parts separated by a single space: the
outward code
and the
inward code
respectively. The
outward code
includes the
postcode area
and the
postcode district
, respectively. The
inward code
includes the
postcode sector
and the
postcode unit
respectively. Examples of postcodes are "SW1W 0NY", "PO16 7GZ", "GU16 7HF", and "L1 8JQ".
POSTCODE
|
Outward code
|
Inward code
|
Area
|
District
|
Sector
|
Unit
|
SW
|
1W
|
0
|
NY
|
Outward code
[
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]
The outward code is the part of the postcode before the single space in the middle. It is between two and four characters long. Examples of outward codes are "L1", "W1A", "RH1", "RH10" or "SE1P". A few outward codes are non-geographic, not divulging where mail is to be sent.
Postcode area
[
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]
The
postcode area
is part of the outward code. The postcode area is either one or two characters long and is alphabetical, with there being 121 such areas. Examples of postcode areas are "L" for
Liverpool
, "RH" for
Redhill
and "EH" for
Edinburgh
. A postal area may cover a wide area, for example "RH" covers various settlements in eastern Surrey and north eastern West Sussex, and "BT" (
Belfast
) covers the whole of
Northern Ireland
.
Postcode district
[
edit
]
The
postcode district
is one digit, two digits or a digit followed by a letter.
Inward code
[
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]
The inward code is the part of the postcode after the single space in the middle. It is three characters long. The inward code assists in the delivery of post within a postal district. Examples of inward codes are "0NY", "7GZ", "7HF", or "8JQ".
[24]
Postcode sector
[
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]
The postcode sector is made up of a single digit (the first character of the inward code).
Postcode unit
[
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]
The postcode unit is two characters added to the end of the postcode sector. A postcode unit generally represents a street, part of a street, a single address, a group of properties, a single property, a sub-section of the property, an individual organisation or (for instance
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
) a subsection of the organisation. The level of discrimination is often based on the amount of mail received by the premises or business.
Validation
[
edit
]
The format is as follows, where
A
signifies a letter and
9
a digit:
Format
|
Coverage
|
Example
|
AA9A 9AA
|
WC postcode area; EC1?EC4, NW1W, SE1P, SW1
|
EC1A 1BB
|
A9A 9AA
|
E1, N1, W1
|
W1A 0AX
|
A9 9AA
|
B, E, G, L, M, N, S, W
|
M1 1AE
|
A99 9AA
|
B33 8TH
|
AA9 9AA
|
All other postcodes
|
CR2 6XH
|
AA99 9AA
|
DN55 1PT
|
Notes:
- As all formats end with 9AA, the first part of a postcode can easily be extracted by ignoring the last three characters.
- Areas with only single-digit districts: BL, BR, FY, HA, HD, HG, HR, HS, HX, JE, LD, SM, SR, WC, WN, ZE (although WC is always subdivided by a further letter, e.g. WC1A)
- Areas with only double-digit districts: AB, LL, SO
- Areas with a district '0' (zero): BL, BS, CM, CR, FY, HA, PR, SL, SS (BS is the only area to have both a district 0 and a district 10)
- The following central London single-digit districts have been further divided by inserting a letter after the digit and before the space: EC1?EC4 (but not EC50), SW1, W1, WC1, WC2 and parts of E1 (E1W), N1 (N1C and N1P), NW1 (NW1W) and SE1 (SE1P).
- The letters
Q
,
V
and
X
are not used in the first position.
- The letters
I
,
J
and
Z
are not used in the second position.
- The only letters to appear in the third position are
A
,
B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, P, S, T, U
and
W
when the structure starts with A9A.
- The only letters to appear in the fourth position are
A, B, E, H, M, N, P, R, V, W, X
and
Y
when the structure starts with AA9A.
- The final two letters do not use
C, I, K, M, O
or
V
, so as not to resemble digits or each other when hand-written.
- Postcode sectors are one of ten digits: 0 to 9, with 0 only used once 9 has been used in a post town, save for Croydon (see above).
A postcode can be validated against a table of all 1.7 million postcodes in
Code-Point Open
. The full delivery address including postcode can be validated against the
Royal Mail
Postcode Address File
(PAF), which lists 29 million valid delivery addresses,
[25]
constituting most (but not all) addresses in the UK.
[26]
The following
regular expression
can be used for the purpose of validation:
^[A-Z]{1,2}[0-9][A-Z0-9]? ?[0-9][A-Z]{2}$
The following regular expression can be used for the purpose of validation and includes postcode formats from
Special Cases
:
^(([A-Z]{1,2}[0-9][A-Z0-9]?|ASCN|STHL|TDCU|BBND|[BFS]IQQ|PCRN|TKCA) ?[0-9][A-Z]{2}|BFPO ?[0-9]{1,4}|(KY[0-9]|MSR|VG|AI)[ -]?[0-9]{4}|[A-Z]{2} ?[0-9]{2}|GE ?CX|GIR ?0A{2}|SAN ?TA1)$
Post towns
[
edit
]
All or part of one or more postcode districts are grouped into
post towns
.
[27]
Larger post towns may use more than one postcode district, for example Crawley uses RH10 and RH11. In a minority of cases, a single number can cover two or more post towns ? for example, the WN8 district includes Wigan and Skelmersdale post towns; and the GL17 district contains five post towns.
Special cases
[
edit
]
Crown dependencies
[
edit
]
The
Channel Islands
and the
Isle of Man
established their own postal administrations separate from the UK in 1969. Despite this, they adopted the UK-format postcodes in 1993?94:
Guernsey
using
GY
, the Isle of Man using
IM
, and
Jersey
using
JE
.
[28]
The independent jurisdiction of
Sark
was assigned a unique postcode district GY10 in 2011 to differentiate it from
Alderney
. The CEO of Guernsey Post, Boley Smillie, said "this has been a long time coming" and "... Sark should have had its own identity back then [when postcodes were adopted in 1993]".
[29]
British Overseas Territories
[
edit
]
Some of the
British Overseas Territories
have postcodes that broadly follow the format of the UK postcode system or, in Gibralter's case, adopts the UK format:
These were introduced because mail was often sent to the wrong place, e.g., to St Helena instead of
St Helens, Merseyside
[36]
or
St Helens, Isle of Wight
.
[37]
and to
Edinburgh
instead of Edinburgh,
Tristan da Cunha
, and many online companies would not accept addresses without a postcode.
[34]
Mail from the UK continues to be treated as international, not inland, and sufficient postage must be used.
[38]
Bermuda
has developed its
own postcode system
, with unique postcodes for street and PO Box addresses,
[39]
as have the
Cayman Islands
,
[40]
Montserrat
and the
British Virgin Islands
.
[41]
Montserrat recently introduced postal codes,
[42]
and a system has been under consideration in
Gibraltar
[43]
with the code GX11 1AA being introduced as the generic postcode for the territory in the interim.
[33]
[44]
The separate postal code systems for those territories are shown below:
The British Sovereign Base Areas of
Akrotiri and Dhekelia
in Cyprus use
Cypriot postal codes
for civilian use. The British military use BFPO addresses.
British Forces Post Office (BFPO)
[
edit
]
The
British Forces Post Office
(BFPO) provides a postal service to HM Forces separate from that provided by Royal Mail in the United Kingdom, with BFPO addresses used for the delivery of mail in the UK and around the world. BFPO codes such as "BFPO 801" serve the same function as postal codes for civilian addresses, with the last line of the address consisting of "BFPO" followed a space and a number of 1 to 4 digits.
For consistency with the format of other UK addresses, in 2012 BFPO and Royal Mail jointly introduced an optional alternative postcode format for BFPO addresses, using the new non-geographic postcode area "BF" and the notional
post town
"BFPO". Each BFPO number is assigned to a postcode in the standard UK format, beginning "BF1". Inward codes are assigned: 0 ? Germany, 1 ? UK, 2 ? Rest of Europe, 3 ? Rest of World, 4 ? Ships and Naval Parties, 5 ? Rest of World, Operations and Exercises, 6 ? Rest of World, Operations and Exercises.
[46]
The database was released commercially in March 2012 as part of the Royal Mail
Postal Address File
(PAF).
[47]
[48]
A postcode is not required if the traditional "BFPO nnnn" format is used.
Non-geographic codes
[
edit
]
Most postcodes apply to a geographic area but some are used only for routing and cannot be used for navigation or estimating distances.
[49]
They are often used for
direct marketing
and
PO boxes
(e.g. in the Brighton BN postcode area, BN50-BN52 are allocated to PO Boxes in Brighton, Rottingdean and Hove). Non-geographic postcode area BX (possibly for "PO
B
o
x
"?) is used solely for non-geographic addresses, with codes independent of the location of the recipient. Similarly, the XX postcode area is allocated for parcel returns of large volume retailers. They are also referred to as "business service indicator addresses, which are used for centralsied scanning of inward mail.
[1]
Some postcode sectors or districts are set aside solely for non-geographic postcodes, including EC50, BS98, BT58, BX1?BX9, IM99, M60, N1P, NE99, SA99, SW9, WV99, WV98 and JE4. Also the first two numbers can be from the range 91 to 95 for businesses and a range 96 to 99 for Government departments. However, there are many exceptions to this (e.g. American Express has the postcode area BN88; in Glasgow G58 is allocated to National Savings, as a mnemonic, though it is located in G43 postcode district; and in Glasgow G70 is allocated to HMRC which is located in G67).
The letters HQ for the last two letters may also mean it is most likely a non-graphical postcode or that Royal Mail holds the mail where a redirection, bulk mail delivery or open and scan to email service is available.
Girobank
's headquarters in
Bootle
used the non-geographic postcode GIR 0AA. There is also a special postcode for
letters to Santa/Father Christmas
, XM4 5HQ.
[46]
Many non-geographic postcodes do not appear on Royal Mail's own online postcode finder tool or their Click and Drop online postage printing tool, which can add to confusion when responding to organisations that use such addresses. Likewise, delivery services or couriers other than Royal Mail may not be able to deliver to such non-physical addresses.
Special postcodes
[
edit
]
Postcodes
are allocated by Royal Mail's Address Management Unit and cannot be purchased or specified by the recipient. However, Royal Mail sometimes assigns semi-
mnemonic
postcodes to high-profile organisations.
[50]
Prominent examples are:
Postcode
|
Organisation
[51]
|
B1
1HQ
|
HSBC UK
h
ead
q
uarters at
1
Centenary Square, Birmingham
|
BS98 1
TL
|
T
V
L
icensing
[52]
|
BX1 1
LT
|
Lloyds Bank formerly known as
L
loyds
T
SB Bank
[53]
?non-geographic address
|
BX2 1
LB
|
Bank of Scotland
(part of
L
loyds
B
anking Group
)
[54]
?non-geographic address
|
BX3 2
BB
|
B
arclays
B
ank
[55]
?non-geographic address
|
BX4
7SB
|
TSB
Bank
|
BX5
5AT
|
VAT
Central Unit of
HM Revenue and Customs
[56]
(
Roman numeral
"
V
AT" = "
5
AT")?non-geographic address
|
CF10 1
BH
|
Lloyds Banking Group (formerly
B
lack
H
orse Finance)
|
CF99 1
NA
|
Senedd
(formerly
N
ational
A
ssembly for Wales)
|
CO4
3SQ
|
University of Essex
(
Sq
uare
3
)
|
CV4 8
UW
|
U
niversity of
W
arwick
|
CV35 0
DB
|
Aston Martin
after their sports cars named "
DB
"
|
DA
1 1
RT
|
Dartford F.C.
(nicknamed The
Dart
s)
|
D
E99
3GG
|
Egg
Banking
(decommissioned in February 2018, after the closure of the bank
[57]
)
|
DE55 4
SW
|
S
limming
W
orld
|
DH98 1
BT
|
B
ritish
T
elecom
|
DH99 1
NS
|
N
ational
S
avings
certificates administration
|
E14 5
HQ
|
HSBC
h
ead
q
uarters at
8 Canada Square
, Canary Wharf
|
E14 5
JP
|
JP
Morgan (Bank Street)
|
E16 1
XL
|
ExCeL
London
[58]
|
E20 2
AQ
|
Olympic
Aq
uatics Centre
|
E20 2
BB
|
Olympic
B
asket
b
all Arena
|
E20 2
ST
|
Olympic
St
adium
|
E20 3
BS
|
Olympic
B
roadca
s
t Centre
|
E20 3
EL
|
Olympic V
el
odrome
|
E20 3
ET
|
Olympic
Et
on Manor Tennis Courts
|
E20 3
HB
|
Olympic
H
and
b
all Arena (now the
Copper Box
)
|
E20 3
HY
|
Olympic
H
ocke
y
Stadium
|
E98 1
SN
|
The
S
u
n
newspaper
|
E98 1
ST
|
The
S
unday
T
imes
newspaper
|
E98 1
TT
|
T
he
T
imes
newspaper
|
EC2N 2
DB
|
D
eutsche
B
ank
|
EC2Y 8
HQ
|
Linklaters
h
ead
q
uarters at One
Silk Street
|
EC4Y 0
HQ
|
Royal Mail Group Ltd
h
ead
q
uarters
|
EC4Y 0
JP
|
JP
Morgan (Victoria Embankment)
|
EH12 1
HQ
|
NatWest Group
h
ead
q
uarters
|
EH
99
1
SP
|
S
cottish
P
arliament
[59]
(founded in 19
99
)
|
G
58
1
SB
|
National
S
avings
B
ank
(the district number
58
also approximates the outline of the initials
SB
)
|
GIR 0
AA
|
Giro
bank
(now
Santander Corporate Banking
)
|
HP5
1WA
|
I
nland
W
aterways
A
ssociation
(decommissioned when the IWA moved office in April 2023
[60]
)
|
IV21
2LR
|
Two
L
ochs
R
adio
|
L30 4
GB
|
G
iro
b
ank (alternative geographic postcode)
|
LS98 1
FD
|
F
irst
D
irect
bank
|
M50 2
BH
|
BBC
B
ridge
H
ouse
|
M50 2
QH
|
BBC
Q
uay
H
ouse
|
N1 9
GU
|
The
Gu
ardian
newspaper
|
N81 1
ER
|
E
lectoral
R
eform Services
[49]
[61]
|
NE1 4
ST
|
St
James' Park
St
adium
,
Newcastle United
|
NG80 1
EH
|
Experian
E
mbankment
H
ouse
|
NG80 1
LH
|
Experian
L
ambert
H
ouse
|
NG80 1
RH
|
Experian
R
iverleen
H
ouse
|
NG80 1
TH
|
Experian
T
albot
H
ouse
|
PH1 5
RB
|
R
oyal
B
ank of Scotland
Perth Chief Office
|
RM11 1
QT
|
Q
ueen's
T
heatre
, Hornchurch
|
PH1 2
SJ
|
S
t
J
ohnstone Football Club
|
S2 4
SU
|
S
heffield
U
nited Football Club
|
S6 1
SW
|
S
heffield
W
ednesday Football Club
|
S
14 7UP
|
The
World Snooker Championships
at the
Crucible Theatre
, Sheffield;
[62]
147 UP refers to a maximum lead (from a
maximum break
) in snooker
|
SA99
|
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
?All postcodes starting with SA99 are for the DVLA offices in the
Morriston
area of
Swansea
, the final part of the postcode relates to the specific office or department within the DVLA
|
SE1
0NE
|
One
America Street
, the London headquarters of architectural firm TP Bennett
|
SE1 8
UJ
|
U
nion
J
ack Club
|
SM6 0
HB
|
H
ome
b
ase Limited
|
SN38 1
NW
|
N
ation
w
ide Building Society
|
SR5 1
SU
|
Stadium of Light,
Su
nderland AFC
|
SW1A 0AA
|
House of Commons
(
P
alace of
W
estminster
; see below for House of Lords)
|
SW1A 0
PW
|
House of Lords
(
P
alace of
W
estminster
; see above for House of Commons)
|
SW1A 1AA
|
Buckingham Palace
(
the Monarch
)
|
SW1A 2AA
|
10 Downing Street
(
the Prime Minister
)
|
SW1A 2AB
|
11 Downing Street
(
Chancellor of the Exchequer
)
|
SW1H 0
TL
|
T
ransport for
L
ondon
(Windsor House, 50 Victoria Street)
|
SW1P 3
EU
|
European Commission and European Parliament office (
E
uropean
U
nion
)
|
SW1W 0
DT
|
The
D
aily
T
elegraph
newspaper
|
SW1V 1
AP
|
Ap
ollo Victoria Theatre
|
SW11 7
US
|
Embassy of the
U
nited
S
tates, London
|
SW19 5
AE
|
A
ll
E
ngland Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
(Venue of the
Wimbledon Championships
)
|
TW8 9
GS
|
G
laxo
S
mithKline
|
W1A 1
AA
|
BBC
Broadcasting House
(
independently notable postcode
)
|
W1D 4
FA
|
The former address of
The
F
ootball
A
ssociation
(decommissioned in February 2010 after they moved location
[63]
)
|
W1N 4
DJ
|
BBC Radio 1
(
d
isc
j
ockey
)
|
W1T 1
FB
|
F
ace
b
ook
|
The postcode printed on Business Reply envelopes (which do not require a stamp) often ends with the letters
BR
.
Operation
[
edit
]
Sorting
[
edit
]
Postcodes are used to sort letters to their destination either manually, where sorters use labelled frames, or increasingly with letter-coding systems, where machines assist in sorting.
[64]
A variation of automated sorting uses
optical character recognition
(OCR) to read printed postcodes, best suited to mail that uses a standard layout and addressing format.
[65]
A long string of "faced" letters (i.e. turned to allow the address to be read) is presented to a keyboard operator at a coding desk, who types the postcodes onto the envelopes in coloured phosphor dots. The associated machine uses the outward codes in these dots to direct bundles of letters into the correct bags for specific delivery offices. With a machine knowledge of the specific addresses handled by each postal walk at each office, the bundles can be further sorted using the dots of the inward sorting code so that each delivery round receives only its own letters.
[24]
This feature depends upon whether it is cost effective to second-sort outward letters, and tends to be used only at main sorting offices where high volumes are handled.
[66]
When postcodes are incomplete or missing, the operator reads the post town name and inserts a code sufficient for outward sorting to the post town, where others can further direct it. The mail bags of letter bundles are sent by road, air or train, and eventually by road to the delivery office.
[66]
At the delivery office the mail that is handled manually is inward sorted to the postal walk that will deliver it; it is then "set in", i.e. sorted into the walk order that allows the deliverer the most convenient progress in the round.
[24]
[66]
The latter process is now being automated, as the roll-out of walk sequencing machines continues.
[67]
[68]
Integrated Mail Processors
[
edit
]
Integrated Mail Processors (IMPs) read the postcode on the item and translate it into two phosphorus barcodes representing the inward and outward parts of the postcode, which the machines subsequently print and read to sort the mail to the correct outward postcode. Letters may also be sequentially sorted by a Compact Sequence Sorter (CSS) reading the outward postcode in the order that a walking postman/woman will deliver, door to door. On such items the top phosphorous barcode is the inward part of the code, the bottom is the outward.
[
citation needed
]
IMPs can also read RM4SCC items, as used in Cleanmail, a different format to the above.
Mailsort and Walksort
[
edit
]
A newer system of five-digit codes called
Mailsort
was designed for users who send "a minimum of 4,000 letter-sized items".
[69]
It encodes the outward part of the postcode in a way that is useful for mail routing, so that a particular range of Mailsort codes goes on a particular plane or lorry. Mailsort users are supplied with a database to allow them to convert from postcodes to Mailsort codes and receive a discount if they deliver mail to the post office split up by Mailsort code. Users providing outgoing mail sorted by postcode receive no such incentive since postcode areas and districts are assigned using permanent mnemonics and do not therefore assist with grouping items together into operationally significant blocks. Walksort
[
clarification needed
]
was discontinued in May 2012.
Listings and availability
[
edit
]
There are approximately 1.7 million postcodes in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
[70]
Each postcode is divided by a space into two parts. As mentioned above, the first part starts with the
postcode area
and ends with the
postcode district
. The second part begins with a single digit, which indicates the
postcode sector
, and ends with the postcode unit.
Postcode areas are also divided into several
post towns
, which predate the introduction of postcodes, with the
London
post town uniquely covering more than one postcode area.
As of June 2016, there are 124 postcode areas, 2,987 postcode districts, 11,192 postcode sectors, and 1,500 post towns.
[70]
As of January 2021
[update]
, 55,540 full postcodes in England and Wales contain only one household.
[71]
Addresses receiving large volumes of mail are each assigned separate "large user" postcodes. But most postcodes are shared by several neighbouring properties, typically covering about 15 addresses.
Life-cycle of postcodes
[
edit
]
There are also significant numbers of discontinued (terminated) codes. Each month some 2,750 postcodes are created and 2,500 terminated.
[72]
Component
|
Part
|
Example
|
Live codes
[73]
|
Terminated codes
[74]
|
Other codes
[
clarification needed
]
|
Total
|
Postcode area
|
Out code
|
YO
|
124
|
0
|
3
|
127
|
Postcode district
|
Out code
|
YO31
|
2,984
|
103
|
4
|
3,087
|
Postcode sector
|
In code
|
YO31 1
|
11,197
|
1,071
|
4
|
12,272
|
Postcode unit
|
In code
|
YO31 1EB
|
1,767,416
[74]
|
876,312
|
4
|
2,643,732
|
Postcode Addresses
|
Approx. 29,965,962
[75]
|
|
Postcode Address File (PAF)
[
edit
]
The Address Management Unit of
Royal Mail
maintains an official database of UK postal addresses and postcodes in its
Postcode Address File
(PAF), which is made available under licence for a fee regulated by
Ofcom
. The PAF is commercially licensable and is often incorporated in address management software packages. The capabilities of such packages allow most addresses to be constructed solely from the postcode and house number. By including the
map references
of postcodes in the address database, the postcode can be used to pinpoint a postcode area on a map. PAF is updated daily.
On its website, Royal Mail publishes summary information about major changes to postcode sectors and postal localities (including post towns). Individual postcodes or postal addresses can be found using Royal Mail's
Postcode and Address Finder
website, but this is limited to 50 free searches per user per day.
Code-Point Open
[
edit
]
A complete list of all current Great Britain postcodes, known as Code-Point Open, has been made available online (since 1 April 2010) by Ordnance Survey. Under the government's
OS OpenData
initiative, it is available for re-use without charge under an attribution-only licence. The Code-Point Open list includes median coordinates for each postcode but excludes postcodes in Northern Ireland and the
Crown dependencies
. Unlike the PAF products provided by Royal Mail, the Code-Point Open list does not include postal address text.
ONS Postcode Directory and National Statistics Postcode Lookup
[
edit
]
The
Office for National Statistics
also produces postcode directories, under similar licence terms to the OS product. Both the ONSPD and NSPL contain Northern Ireland postcodes, with centroid coordinates in the
OSI
grid as opposed to the
OSGB grid
, although Northern Ireland postcodes are subject to a more restrictive licence permitting internal business use only.
[76]
Postcodes for the Crown Dependences are also included, without co-ordinates. A further difference is that non-current postcodes and dates of introduction and withdrawal of postcodes are included.
Other uses
[
edit
]
While postcodes were introduced to expedite the delivery of mail, they are useful tools for other purposes, particularly because codes are very fine-grained and identify just a few addresses. Among these uses are:
- With
satellite navigation
systems, to navigate to an address by street number and postcode
- By life insurance companies and pension funds to assess longevity for pricing and reserving
[77]
- By other types of insurance companies to assess premiums for motoring/business/domestic policies
- To determine
catchment areas
for school places or
doctors'
surgeries
- Finding the nearest branch of an organisation to a given address. A computer program uses the postcodes of the target address and the branches to list the closest branches in order of distance as the crow flies (or, if used in conjunction with street-map software, by road distance). This can be used by companies to inform potential customers where to go, by
job centres
to find jobs for job-seekers, to alert people of
town planning
applications in their area, and a great many other applications.
[22]
The phrase "
postcode lottery
" refers to the variation in the availability of services by region, though not always because of postcodes.
For these and related reasons, postcodes in some areas have become indicators of social status. Some residents have campaigned to change their postcode to associate themselves with a more desirable area,
[78]
to disassociate with a poorer area,
[79]
to reduce insurance premiums or to be associated with an area with a lower
cost of living
.
[80]
In all these cases
Royal Mail
has said that there is "virtually no hope" of changing the postcode, referring to their policy of changing postcodes only to match changes in their operations.
[81]
Postcode areas rarely align with local government boundaries and a few straddle
England
's borders with
Wales
and
Scotland
. This has led to
British Sky Broadcasting
subscribers receiving the wrong BBC and ITV regions, and newly licensed
radio amateurs
being given incorrect
call signs
.
|
---|
|
Crown dependencies
| |
---|
Overseas territories
| |
---|
Non-geographic
| |
---|
|
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
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(October 2004).
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a
b
c
d
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a
b
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a
b
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b
c
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b
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b
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,
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- ^
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,
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4 January
2010
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Postal geography
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Organisations
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Philately
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Infrastructure
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Postal codes in Europe
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Dependencies and
other entities
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