why UK postcodes work BETTER than American zip codes 

Here are the UK special postcodes for anyone interested (formatting is a bit weird but have fun): B1 1HQ HSBC UK headquarters at 1 Centenary Square, Birmingham BS98 1TL TV Licensing[52] BX1 1LT Lloyds Bank formerly known as Lloyds TSB Bank[53]-non-geographic address BX2 1LB Bank of Scotland (part of Lloyds Banking Group)[54]-non-geographic address BX3 2BB Barclays Bank[55]-non-geographic address BX4 7SB TSB Bank BX5 5AT VAT Central Unit of HM Revenue and Customs[56] (Roman numeral "VAT" = "5AT")-non-geographic address CF10 1BH Lloyds Banking Group (formerly Black Horse Finance) CF99 1NA Senedd (formerly National Assembly for Wales) CO4 3SQ University of Essex (Square 3) CV4 8UW University of Warwick CV35 0DB Aston Martin after their sports cars named "DB" DA1 1RT Dartford F.C. (nicknamed The Darts) DE99 3GG Egg Banking (decommissioned in February 2018, after the closure of the bank[57] ) DE55 4SW Slimming World DH98 1BT British Telecom DH99 1NS National Savings certificates administration E14 5HQ HSBC headquarters at 8 Canada Square, Canary Wharf E14 5JP JP Morgan (Bank Street) E16 1XL ExCeL London[58] E20 2AQ Olympic Aquatics Centre E20 2BB Olympic Basketball Arena E20 2ST Olympic Stadium E20 3BS Olympic Broadcast Centre E20 3EL Olympic Velodrome E20 3ET Olympic Eton Manor Tennis Courts E20 3HB Olympic Handball Arena (now the Copper Box) E20 3HY Olympic Hockey Stadium E98 1SN The Sun newspaper E98 1ST The Sunday Times newspaper E98 1TT The Times newspaper EC2N 2DB Deutsche Bank EC2Y 8HQ Linklaters headquarters at One Silk Street EC4Y 0HQ Royal Mail Group Ltd headquarters EC4Y 0JP JP Morgan (Victoria Embankment) EH12 1HQ NatWest Group headquarters EH99 1SP Scottish Parliament[59] (founded in 1999) G58 1SB National Savings Bank (the district number 58 also approximates the outline of the initials SB) GIR 0AA Girobank (now Santander Corporate Banking) HP5 1WA Inland Waterways Association (decommissioned when the IWA moved office in April 2023[60]) IV21 2LR Two Lochs Radio L30 4GB Girobank (alternative geographic postcode) LS98 1FD First Direct bank M50 2BH BBC Bridge House M50 2QH BBC Quay House N1 9GU The Guardian newspaper N81 1ER Electoral Reform Services[49][61] NE1 4ST St James' Park Stadium, Newcastle United NG80 1EH Experian Embankment House NG80 1LH Experian Lambert House NG80 1RH Experian Riverleen House NG80 1TH Experian Talbot House PH1 5RB Royal Bank of Scotland Perth Chief Office RM11 1QT Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch PH1 2SJ St Johnstone Football Club S2 4SU Sheffield United Football Club S6 1SW Sheffield Wednesday Football Club S14 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 8UJ Union Jack Club SM6 0HB Homebase Limited SN38 1NW Nationwide Building Society SR5 1SU Stadium of Light, Sunderland AFC SW1A 0AA House of Commons (Palace of Westminster; see below for House of Lords) SW1A 0PW House of Lords (Palace of Westminster; 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 0TL Transport for London (Windsor House, 50 Victoria Street) SW1P 3EU European Commission and European Parliament office (European Union) SW1W 0DT The Daily Telegraph newspaper SW1V 1AP Apollo Victoria Theatre SW11 7US Embassy of the United States, London SW19 5AE All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Venue of the Wimbledon Championships) TW8 9GS GlaxoSmithKline W1A 1AA BBC Broadcasting House (independently notable postcode) W1D 4FA The former address of The Football Association (decommissioned in February 2010 after they moved location[63]) W1N 4DJ BBC Radio 1 (disc jockey) W1T 1FB Facebook

The building my wife works in has its own postcode. She is the only person in that building with her first name. So I could send a piece of mail to her just with a first name and postcode. Add UK to the bottom of the address and it could be sent from anywhere in the world.

The biggest difference between US zip codes and UK postcodes is that, in the UK, everything about where you live is based on your postcode (not just directions). Filling out a form for a delivery? Or joining something like a library? The first question is “what’s your postcode?” Then it will offer you a choice of house numbers (mine includes just 1 through 4). Done! The system will fill out the rest of your address. It does make using GPS/SatNav a snap, too, though.

Hi! I was the programmer, in the 70s, of the giant 'threaded core translator' (very early computer) that ran the the mail in the Norwich scheme, calculating binary codes for postcodes which became blue dots on envelopes, directing the mail's electronic sorting through massive sorting machines. The scheme was very future-proof. Our prototype 1960s NOR scheme was overhauled, to become the blueprint NRxx scheme. Never thought we'd get a mention on YT! :)

Postcodes are so old in London they are often written in the stonework of buildings next to the street name.

Ireland recently implemented a post code system where each address has a unique code. It makes navigation very easy. New addresses are automatically added every month by An Post (the national post service) so you don't even need to apply for one, and you can look up your address online. Mapping services mostly synchronise with this system so it's really easy to tell delivery people where to go.

Some years ago a resident of a village near Maidenhead complained that they had a postcode beginning with "SL" (for Slough). The BBC became interested and sent a film crew to interview villagers. Eventually the argument was settled by another villager who observed that Windsor Castle's postcode also begins "SL" and said "It it is good enough for the Queen then it is good enough for me!"

As a child of the 70s, I remember that postcodes often weren't used unless you were writing to a business or company. The Royal Mail prided itself on being able to deliver letters to the right place with the barest minimum of address on the envelope (such as "Smith, King Street, Birmingham"), so the population had to be convinced to use postcodes on their personal letters, leading to an advertising campaign with the slogan "Pass on your postcode, you're not properly addressed without it" which ran in the early 80s.

Regarding the UK postcode, the first one or two letters originally signified the Mail Centre, but with the improvement of automated sorting Mail Centres were consolidated. For instance, Bristol Mail Centre now sorts mail for: BS - Bristol BA - Bath GL - Gloucester TA Taunton With the old Mail Centres either closed or downgraded to Delivery Office. My home town in Worcestershire uses the postcode DY (Dudley) but that Mail Centre is either closed or downgraded, the DY postcodes are now sorted by Birmingham Mail Centre. Royal Mail make a substantial amount of money from licencing the post code system to GPS manufacturers and addressing software. Every time you order something online you'll use an addressing system licenced by Royal Mail.

Right up until the '90s they used to say "Don't forget the postcode" when they gave adresses out on the TV. God! I totally forgot that writing into TV shows used to be a thing; I'm getting old!

In the UK there's also a Postcode Lottery game. Your monthly payments go partly to groups of charities, but quite good for nice prizes.

"LL" in North Wales relates to Llandudno. Some areas in North East Wales near the English border have a "CH" code for Chester. Similarly most of Mid Wales has an "SY" code for Shrewsbury. I don't know if this has happened elsewhere, but, Wirral was originally allocated "L" for Liverpool postcodes. However, Wirral was traditionally, before local government reorganisations, part of Cheshire. Some of the richer and/or traditionalists objected to being "part" of Liverpool, consequently Wirral's postcode was changed to "CH".

Fascinating episode. I lived in Norwich in the 1950s/1960s and remember the introduction of "postal codes", as I think they were called. My class in school were taken to the Norwich sorting office to see the post being sorted. I wasn't aware that Norwich was being used for testing in this way though! Thanks for this 🙂

for those viewing from outside the US, a US ZIP code will direct mail to a specific post office. the post office uses the street address or Post Office box number to get the mail to the proper location. the ZIP+4 system adds a 4 digit code that pinpoints where the mail is to be delivered. in theory, a letter with just the ZIP+4 would get to the recipient.

In Ireland, we have eircodes. Every house, business, apartment, granny flat, log cabin, mobile home can apply and get it's own individual eircode. It's free and it's integrated with Google maps and other GPS apps. It's wonderful, probably the best of it's kind in the world. It is beloved of delivery drivers.

it's all fun and games until you're trying to find an American address with only the zip code

Living in Norfolk when the trials were under way was interesting. I remember our postcode in a village a few miles outside Norwich was NOR 87X. It had obviously been noted down during a phone call because the letter that arrived was addressed to NOR AT7X. 😊

I was fascinated to hear that the modern UK postcodes were trialled in Norwich, as I worked the Christmas Post there in December 1983 to supplement my student grant (I had an overnight job in the main sorting office in the city) . We get so used to using our postcodes to find locations, or to identify our addresses when fillling in forms or shopping online. You literally put in your postcode, and the number of your house, and it's job done! I hadn't realised until a while ago that US potcodes are not nearly as specific.

Fun fact about Norwich, Ayrton Senna owned a house there, I have been in that house.

Fascinating video. Canada adopted a system similar to the UK, but with our own unique blend. We go letter number letter - number letter number, eg: B3S 1L8. The first letter is for a province or area of a province if it is large (Quebec and Ontario mostly), and go from East to West. Newfoundland is A, Nova Scotia is B, British Columbia is V. I'm not sure how the other letters/numbers are applied, but they narrow down the location. Sometimes can be for a single house, or several houses/businesses on a street. (probably no more that 20 or so). One byproduct of this, is that Santa Claus gets his own postal code..... H0H0H0! 🎅 Not sure if that was planned for or not, but hundreds of Canada Post employees volunteer each year to be Santa's Honourary Eleves, and will reply to all letters mailed to Santa, at the North Pole. Cheers!😊

Santander UK bank's HQ is in Bootle, Merseyside and the building's postcode is GIR 0AA which was inherited from the now defunct Alliance and Leicester bank who in turn got it from Girobank when they took it over in 1990. Girobank was the banking wing of the UK Post Office who simply allocated itself a bespoke postcode.

Several years ago, I visited a United States national park and they ask anyone who entered the park for their ZIP code. the person in front of me in the queue was not from the United States and was clueless concerning ZIP code. Even though the person had a decidedly English accent they ask her three times for her ZIP code. I had to step in and Tell them that she obviously was not American and she probably did not have a zip code.

I spent my life in IT and we had a whole department dedicated to maintaining the address database. Fixing postcode irregularities was one of the tasks undertaken because some large buildings have multiple postcodes (one for each side in some cases!) and we needed a single "customer postcode". There are also a few places in the country without postcodes, mainly isolated rural areas or uninhabited islands (but not necessarily without buildings(ie addresses! - think lighthouses!)

I still remember an advertising jingle (from the 80's?) in the UK that went "Pass on your postcode - you're not properly addressed without it."

Most people might know that the XX1 would be the town that the XX is short for, but a little known fact that I just learned recently, is that you can roughly guess the town from the number afterwards for the other towns in the same area. The numbers are actually counting the sorting offices by town name, alphabetically.

Very interesting & well researched.....I love the way you bring some real 'quirky' and intriguing stuff into your videos..... certainly makes for good viewing!! Thankyou 😊

Postcodes can also be linked to telephone area codes, as they both go back to whn it was under one publicly owned company called the GPO (General Post Office), before being privatised. For example, up here in West Yorkshire, the town of Cleckheaton hs both a BD (Bradford) postcode and area code (01274), but is part of Kirklees Metropolitan Council (which is based in Huddersfield, HD postcode. It's probably the same with a loot of other towns across the UK.

As Spoc would say, 'Fascinating'. I remember decades ago a few buddies tried an experiment sending post cards using an address but no post code and other cards using just the post code and the house number. The post coded ones were all delivered to the correct address and in some cases arrived faster than the standard address cards. It wasn't a big survey and it was a local area but it did prove the system worked. Many thanks for sharing.

I've always lived in the SE of England, but to this day I can still remember the Junior Showtime TV programme postcode: Leeds LS3 1JS (even though I have not heard it since my childhood many decades ago).

One of the best things about UKk postcodes is... A door number and postcode will allow any courier to deliver a letter or parcel to you, even if your postcode is for a comercial building with many businesses inside.

Great video Kayln & love watching your videos. ❤

Not quite on subject but close enough... I read a book once that had a whole section on letters that the Royal mail had managed to deliver even though the address was either incomplete or in some cases actually wrote as a puzzle (yep apparently this was a thing) and some were even just the name of the town with a hand drawn picture of the house. All these years later and I can only remember one piece which was a letter to Sam Underhill but they had just wrote Hill with the name Sam beneath...Sam Under Hill, the whole address was like this but still made it.

The post code for the BBC offices in Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush (I think they are closed now) was W12 8QT. When I was younger you were always being encouraged to write in, often on a postcard to enter into competitions, and so this postcode was mentioned whenever they ran a competition and often at the end of the show if you wanted to write to the presenters or the show. It is indelibly etched in my memory. Watching your video I wonder if QT was related to Question Time as it would have been one of the first shows which you could apply to be in the studio audience for.

With a little experience you can place a postcode to an area in the UK as they are based on larger towns or cities. FK is Falkirk, CF is Cardiff, SA is Swansea etc.

In the Netherlands we use 1000-9999 + 2letters. So 4712 GM. The first 2 numbers refer to the region/city, the last 2 refer to the neighbourhood, and the letters give you the specific street. Some cities use roadsigns with the neighbourhood numbers so you know where you are(going).

When I first moved to Norwich in 1972 the postcode for the University of East Anglia was “NOR 88C” which obviously used a different system to that subsequently used in later postcodes, and the current postcode for UEA is NR4 7TJ. Postcodes were later (1990s) used as part of walksort order which was included as part of an automatic routing for Post Office deliveries to be sorted into the best sequence/route for hand deliveries. The benefit of this for bulk users was that postal items provided in bulk qualified for a discount if they were delivered to the Post Office already in the walksort sequence which reduced the amount of work required by the Post Office.

The famous London landmark that is Tower Bridge has the postcode 'SE1 2UP'.

Fun fact! In the UK You can just put the house number And the postcode and your letter will normally get there

Thanks for the education about ZIP codes, it was more interesting than i expected! I still prefer post codes though 😉

I found this a very informative and well presented video. Thanks for the excellent job.

As a child of the 1960's, we were taught this: the first two digits were a state code, Tennessee was 37. The next digit was a city code, Nashville was 2, and then there were neighborhoods/local post offices with the last two digits. I believe the numbers were based on population rank at that time: so Memphis was 1, Nashville was 2, on down. I suppose that coties with two digit codes had fewer neighborhood codes to use, anyway. The two digit state codes may have gone back to the 1940's, as there are addresses on WW2 recruitment posters that show the same two digit code in addresses. Thank you for trying to explain a very in intuitive subject, for both countries.

I enjoyed the watch. Thank yo for making the film

Meanwhile, somewhere in Langley...."Guys... you now that algorithm we use for assigning safe houses?...."

Please remember that not all of us in the UK have house numbers. In our lane all houses have names, not numbers, and to make it worse there are 3 postcodes which are are arranged so that alternate buildings have the same postcode e,g 9JG, 9JH, 9JK, 9JG, 9JH, 9JK. When you type a postcode into Google maps it can point to a building a hundred metres away. Makes life interesting for delivery drivers! I gather that all new buildings in the UK have to have a number applied, but it is not done retrospectively on older properties that never had one in the first place.

Every day’s a school day, cool video

5:25, the in-code can have 3 or 4 characters (not just 3) being 1 or 2 numerics followed by by 2 apha characters, the space is important, and the whole code including the space is between 6 and 8 characters. The Out code is 2,3 or 4 characters, the 1st is alpha a 2nd alpha may follow, following this is a number 1 or 2 characters with a final apha being possible, A code such as E141AA could be either 'E1 41AA' or 'E14 1AA', both E1 and E14 are legitimate Out Codes, and 1AA and 41AA are both legitimate 'In codes', the only way to put the space back is to check with Post Office Database. I thought a full code would normally give less than 100 Homes/Houses (front doors). Many blocks of flats have different codes for each floor. There is also a Park Bench (BS2 8QD, I think) with its own Post Code, it allows rough sleepers to register with a GP.

What is often not known is that Post Office system not only sorts the mail outwards but, once it gets to the delivery office, sorts it into the correct order for each delivery walk.

Good stuff. Something I didn't know i wanted to know about! BTW the Aston Martin 'DB' is after David Brown - its owner.

I live in Aylesbury, so I love that you used it in your example, with the HP postcode! I also lived in Milton Keynes (MK) - which post codes also cover parts of Bedfordshire as well as Bucks! 😁

You got the 4DJ jingle stuck in my head 😆 Also you need to know that the special postcode for letters to Santa/Father Christmas looks like Xmas HQ: Santa's Grotto Reindeerland XM4 5HQ Children writing to him in good time get a reply.

That was super interesting, thanks!

I used to work in logistics, where I learned that postcodes are plotted in a spiral from the first '1' i.e SW1, so in SW1, the postcodes will start at SW1 1AA and cycle around the SW1 postcodes until being constrained by the district boundary, leading the way for SW2 1AA, and continues in this way until the complete SW zone is filled.

Thanks for the comparison! When Americans mock Brits for saying "oh" for the digit zero, I refer them to "90210"... I appreciate the mnemonic factor of UK postcodes, and didn't realise US ones are no good for navigation, but it makes sense -- huge country with only 100000 possible codes! I'd heard of the ZIP+4 codes but didn't know they'd basically died. Some more UK postcode trivia... (I don't work in this area, I'm just a nerd). C, I, K, M, O and V are not allowed in the outcode, to avoid confusion with similar letters and numbers. This makes the common example postcode AB12 3CD invalid, otherwise it might be a real address in the Aberdeen area. There are also tweaks like IG instead of GI for Great Ilford, to avoid confusion with a following 1. BX ("box") is a "fake" postcode area for when this is to be concealed. Example: BX1 1LT is used by Lloyds Bank (formerly Lloyds TSB, hence the "LT"). SAN TA1 is a valid postcode for messages to Santa. A couple more special ones in London: SW1A 0AA - Palace of Westminster SW1A 1AA - Buckingham Palace

A very interesting video, you've explained our system rather well. A couple of expansions, if I may - UK Postcodes are, in fact, composed of FOUR chunks rather than two, with the numbers and letters showing the Area, District, Sector and Unit (so, SW11 5DR is the DR Unit of Sector 5 of District 11 of the SW Area - that's how granular our system gets). You mentioned Norwich, but Croydon was also used for trailing, and it still has an anomaly to this day; the intention was to have three-letter Areas, so Norwich & Croydon had NOR & CRO but, when it was decided to switch to the 'xxyy' format, CRO was changed to CR0 (zero), making it the only 0 District in the country. And, finally, all postcodes follow the 'xxyy yxx' format EXCEPT for parts of inner London where, due to the sheer number of addresses needed, an extra letter is added (SW1V for example).

DVLA (the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency) in Swansea has a number of different postcodes depending upon which particular section of their operation you are dealing with.

And now, even more effective than a post code, is “what three words”. I know someone who used this app and those 3 words provided for your location to actually ascertain where they were and get the emergency services to them… exactly what it began for. Now you can use those 3 unique random words to help deliveries too.

Loved that you mention st james park home of the toon army..newcastle

The UK postcode system is so good you only need to write the house / flat number and the postcode and theblwttwr will get there.

This is a fun topic! Whenever I'm writing Christmas cards to my cousins in Chicago I'll usually write the ZIP+4 to be safe, while in a smaller city like Kansas City the zip codes seem to mirror the older postal zones closer, so all the zip code did was add a 2 digit code representing the city, depending on how you count it. So, Kansas City's Union Station and old central post office are in 64108 which was addressed as Kansas City 08, so 6 is the regional code for IL, MO, KS, and NE and 41 the city code for Kansas City then. I kind of like the alphanumeric system in Ireland, the UK and Canada better, it's more memorable, though I can see the benefit of a fully numerical system.

Our EirCodes in Ireland follow the UK model but even more precise as the last two digits are individual to each address, even individual apartments. I tested it a few years ago by getting a friend to send a postcard to me using just the EirCode, not even the house number, I received it but took an extra day as some areas were not fully automated. Unfortunately the use was not made compulsory when introduced.

In Northern Ireland, all postcodes begin with BT. The next one or two numbers refers to the nearest postal town which sometimes has a postal sorting office (not the same thing as a post office) and can cover several nearby towns and villages (usually those within about 5-10 miles of the postal town) the last 3 digits (usually 1 number and 2 letters) refers to a specific road, street or housing estate.

Good stuff as always

At Uni i stayed in halls that were right on a roundabout going out of town and had a "0AA" postcode, as the first property in the new area!

Great video. Very informative.

I live in a massive development in London and my building is split into 5 "blocks". My postcode is unique to just my block and the others have their own, as do the rest of the buildings in the development. Being a migrant to the UK myself from a country with postcode system similar to the US, I found the UK postcodes incredibly useful. The US zip+4 system is still in use AFAICT, most of my friends in the US provide me their extended zip codes with their addresses and it really helps remove any ambiguity when posting things to them.

Zip codes do have a supplementary 4-digit code for pinpointing a location, but only commercial entities use it.

Here in New Zealand a single 4 figure postcode covers the whole of my township, but the rural roads around the township have a slightly different code. In Christchurch the postcode changes from suburb to suburb.

HMRC has its own postcodes, one for each department. For example if you want to send a cheque for self-assessment tax, the postcode is BX5 5BD. If you want to post stuff to the Aggregates Levy department, the postcode is BX9 1GL.

Very informative, thank-you. Australian postcodes are like a weakened version of the US zip codes. There are four digits. Each state has its own start digit (2 to 7), although ACTY (and JBT?) have two ranges within the NSW range, and the territories off WA have WA postcodes. NT starts with "0". There are also some high-volume users and PO boxes as specific post offices (although captial city PO boxes are usually x001). For NSW they start with "1", Vic "8", Qld "3". The AUstrlian National University has "0200", but they also use the regular postcode for that part of the city. Within each state or territory, there doesn't apear to be a consistent pattern. Melbourne is like wheel spokes, with 3011 to 3030 radiating out south-west, then 3031 to 3050, 3061 to 3080, etc, but there are exceptions. Brisbane has 40xx on the north side and 41xx on the south side, but even close by there are 43xx and 45xx numbers. They were probably based on former shire boundaries.

Great video!

My grandparents lived in an area of Liverpool and their early postal code was L22. My aunts and uncles and cousins in the same area now have much more complex postal codes, which I can never remember!

You should try the Irish version, "Eircodes" which are address/building specific. Really helps finding places if you are in unfamiliar area. EG my area would be F92 + unique identifier of 4 characters to take me to a specific building be it friend, customer or otherwise.

In the UK the first 1 or 2 letters identify the city, region or district while the following 1 or 2 numbers are added for each local area name within said district, in alphabetical order. So SE1 is Bankside in SE London, SE2 is Catford, SE18 is Greenwich, etc. The final 3 characters then narrow the address down to a specific street or part of a street. you can send a letter to the right door just by using the postcode and door number. Or you can use the full street name and number with just the basic postcode and it will arrive all the same. This also makes it easy for London cab drivers to figure out roughly where to go with just your postcode, as the name of your town in London will start with a high or low letter in the alphabet indicated by a high or low postcode number. Fun fact!

The purpose of the 5 digit zip codes, was to speed up sorting, not the actual local delivery. The additional 4 digits was added much later but as you pointed out, was not adopted by the public.

The London Postcodes came first. There used to be more such as NE for North East London, but was merged into the neighbouring Eastern district. This combination of letters now represents Newcastle.

A weird little thing about the post codes in outer London is that the postcodes were set before the current boundaries of Greater London, so there are some post towns that are split between areas within and without London, like RM, referring to Romford, serves both Romford itself- in London- and places in South West Essex like Thurrock (not in London)

I once shared my postcode with one other house and a “tile factory”. Now I share with another 47 houses. Postcodes (first section) are also used by companies in regard to cost of insurance etc. They collate figures on crime, burglary etc, and therefore you can pay slightly more or less than someone living just down the road, but in a different postcode area.

I remember an old TV advert that had a jingle that went: "Pass on your post-code, you're not properly addressed without it"

Good video GGL....Although postcodes are good you can still send a letter without it and it will take about the same time!

When we rented a holiday home in Scotland, we were given the 'What3Words" app reference as the postcode covered too large an area and the property was remote!

Royal Mail maintain the Postal Address File (PAF) which contains every UK Post Code, including which premises belong to each code - however they charge for access to that. Thats the one GPS providers and delivery firms use. However, there's a free version (Open Government Licence) which just lists each code and a coordinate of where that code is (not to the building) provided by the Ordnance Survey - called Code-Point Open.

Zip+4 is very much still in use, but not very much by the public. Bulk mailers get discounts for using Zip+4 and/or pre-sorting mail. The machines that the post office use read the destination address on the letter, figure out the actual zip+4 and print it in the barcode on the envelope. That is called the Intelligent Mail Barcode and actually includes a zip+6 which identifies the exact place to deliver the mail. So the public doesn't need to know all the details, our computer masters have us all figured out.

0:48 All you need as an address in the UK is the house number & the code. Very handy for small return address.

🎶You’re not properly addressed without it 🎶. That was the jingle for the postcode adverts I remember from the 1970s.

Your PO code in the UK is a description of how you feel when Royal Mail contrive not to be able to find where you live.......

You can have a postcode for even less than a building. A relative of mine lives in a block of flats with two different postcodes: one for the bottom half and one for the top. The two postcodes are almost the same, only differing by one letter.

I used to be involved in designing computer systems for a large company, and I thought if you collected someone’s postcode, you could use the Post Office’s database to find an address. Then I found out that the Post Office change’s post codes, so one day a post code is valid and the next it’s invalid. So you must always record your customers and suppliers addresses and determine the postcode just before you address a letter.

There is still a + 4 and even more if you want to use them. The plus 4 is getting used more these days. Akso called a piatal code here (USA) ZIP was a way to introduce it, but we kept that term too. The USA would have a looooong postal code (50 states plus territories, some 9f which arw HUGE bigger than many counties) to get that specific. Which well there is one...no one even postal carriers use them.

If you like British post codes, check out the Dutch ones. I suspect they owe much of their awesomeness from a relatively late introduction. On the other hand, you can definitely see a difference between cities that had more than enough for their expansion and smaller towns that have had to stretch their part code space a lot thinner.

Canada is the only country that I know of which adopted the UK postcode system. I've a relative who lives in a town around London, Ontario and the postcode is L4X 1R9.

My house is the only one in my postcode. An oddity dating back to the war when every other property on the estate was destroyed and never rebuilt. It is also the only house on the road, the numbering for which starts and ends at 15.

The beauty of the UK system is that if you know the building number/name and the postcode, then you can uniquely identify any address. When you write the address on a letter, or in navigation software you can include all those other more human-friendly things (street names, towns, counties etc) but you do not need to.

Hi Kayln, nice video about postcodes really enjoyed it. Australia follows the American postcode system but we have 4 digits not 5; and we don't do the 9 digits thing either. In terms of area, a postcode here two or three suburbs or towns; definitely not a group of houses. Fun fact: the land area for postcode 0872 in Australia is a bit over 1 million square kilometres - and the United Kingdom will fit in this area 4 times with room to spare! Furthermore, the population for this postcode is under 15,000 inhabitants. Used to live in Norwich for two years when growing up. Didn't know that Norwich a leader in mail sorting and was part of a national trial in the 1960's thank you for teaching me.

Well I’m blowed, never knew of the special post codes. Live and learn!

In the Netherlands we have postcodes that are more like the UK Four numbers that increasingly narrow the region (e.g. all codes starting with 1 will be roughly in the Noord Holland province, then next up a smaller region within that, such as a large city as Amsterdam having the postcodes staring with 10, but in more rural areas the first two numbers can be quite a large number of towns combined, then the last two digits will narrow it down even more), and then finally two letters that typically determine the specific street

To define an exact address, the house number is added as a suffix, separated by a space. For example, LE2 3YB 2a is a house numbered 2a on Kingsmead Road, Leicester. There are also some pseudo-postcodes in use, which do not relate to specific places but are needed for computer-based recording of things like births occurring during aircraft flight, or weddings on board British registered ocean liners. Overseas countries also have pseudo-postcodes, which are used for visitors attending NHS facilities. These typically begin ZZ99. For example: ZZ99 3VZ - No fixed abode ZZ99 3CZ - England/U.K not otherwise specified ZZ99 3GZ - Wales not otherwise specified ZZ99 1WZ - Scotland not otherwise specified ZZ99 2WZ - Northern Ireland not otherwise specified ZZ99 6CZ - India

What's really interesting (if you're sad like me) is that there's also something called a Delivery Point Suffix (DPS) which is used for processes called mail sorting or walk sorting. (eg... the route the postperson takes so the mail can be ordered as close to that as possible). With a postcode + dps code it can uniquely identify a premise/somewhere in a premise... so with 9 characters it's possible to uniquely identify an actual address that the Royal Mail/others can deliver to.

We have postcodes here but they are suburb or town specific. The first number designates the state and starts in the centre of the city. Such as 2000 for Sydney or 3000 for Melbourne.

My area post code starts PO,PO1 1AA is the main Post office sorting office for Portsmouth,my Road starting PO7.

Aha I should’ve remembered 4DJ from the days of Children’s television when competitions involved mailing in. Answers on the back of a postcard.