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

@andrewbutler7681

21 күн бұрын

Two 'specials' that were important to me were E14 5NT - where the NT stood for Northern Trust - and SW1A 2AH - the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in King Charles Street...

@brigidsingleton1596

21 күн бұрын

😮 WoW Kalyn...just...WoW!!!😮😊❤🖖

@scragar

21 күн бұрын

There's a postcode that is extra special, XM4 5HQ, it goes right to Santa. Santa's really cool too since for blind kids he can reply in braille, and he speaks multiple languages so he can help make sure you get a reply you can understand.

@pwensor

21 күн бұрын

Most UK town’s mail sorting offices have postcodes ending with 1AA

@tomwalker779

20 күн бұрын

Here in Canada we use a similar system to Britain My postal code is M6K 3B4 M is the forward sortation area, major city. M is Toronto 6 is the old postal code in the city/town K is the nearest post office Ours is station K 3B4 breaks down to the carriers walk, the block and the group of 10 to 20 houses. The letters start on the East Coast. Many large office buildings have their own postal code.

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.

@itskdog

21 күн бұрын

Many businesses get their own postcode.

@b3564

20 күн бұрын

Probably easier and quicker to talk when she's home!

@gillianrimmer7733

20 күн бұрын

I run an Etsy shop and regularly send parcels within the UK and abroad - I was told ( by the PO) to only put my house number and postcode on them as a return address because that's all that's needed for them to get back to me if not delivered.

@mondrus72

20 күн бұрын

My block of flats (14 floors) has two different Post Codes. Top half of the building has one code and the bottom half has another. The two Post Codes only vary by last letter of the code being different.

@richardseed8253

16 күн бұрын

The outward code is the sorting office town. Or area in London.

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.

@raycardy4843

16 күн бұрын

Yes, because the Royal Mail licences the system to these organisations - much like the DVLA does with car registrations, so when you enter your number plate on an insurance website, or a car parts supplier, it immediately knows what make/model/year of car you drive! 🤓

@trevordance5181

16 күн бұрын

The first part of the British Post Code is known as the outward code. That shows the delivery office where an item of mail should be sent too from anywhere in the UK. The second part is the inward code, which shows where in the receiving delivery office's area the item is destined for.

@markwright3161

15 күн бұрын

I wish a business on our road would give customers more info for directions than the post code. The way it shows on maps, the pin is in a field in front of our farm, so it feels like a significant percentage of their customers come up our lane looking to get balers fixed or buy a digger or straw. :)

@solentbum

15 күн бұрын

The last part of the Postcode relates to the final 'Beat' for the Postman. The mail is sorted so that it goes to the postman in the order it will be delivered, (at least in theory) There is/ was one housing estate in Andover that was numbered according to the projected path of the Mailman, with the house numbers following an 'unusual' route. As others have pointed out, the UK postcode has become an essential part of any address, be that for letters, parcels or even a delivery of building materials.

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.

@jgharston

2 күн бұрын

No, postcodes aren't carved into old buildings, post areas are. You will never see a 19th century building with SW1A 1AA carved into it. You will often find street nameplates with SW, W, SE, etc on them - see the opening of Granada TV's Sherlock Holmes. Modern street nameplates usually have the post district on them, eg SW1, S6, NE4, etc.

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.

@trickygoose2

11 күн бұрын

I remember my late grandparents around this time having their postcode pinned somewhere prominent on a wall so that they could remember to use it.

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.

@pholdway5801

14 күн бұрын

Brill idea.....

@tamaskozma2487

13 күн бұрын

I already received a letter from abroad with this address: my name + the Eircode. Nothing else. It arrived.

@DougieLawson

13 күн бұрын

An Post were fairly late to the game, so they got the benefit of lots of world wide experience when designing their post coding system. It is an example of best of breed and even better than the UK's complete mess which boils down to about 60 houses. The Irish system is an individual property or even an individual flat within a block.

@sam1111979

13 күн бұрын

It's good that having launched it after most other countries, they've basically implemented an improved version of the UK and other systems. Incidentally the UK has a a "DPS code" which is included in barcoded mailings which is another 2 digits on the end of the postcode which corresponds to a unique address. Helpfully almost all of the letters at the beginning of the Eircodes are not used in UK postcodes without another letter following, which I'm sure is deliberate.

@jimf671

11 күн бұрын

To some extent, Eircode missed a trick, same as the British. A 10m ITM location could have been done in 9 characters. Just as in Britain a 10m OS Grid is 10 characters. Why the hassle of a completely new unique system when you have gone to the expense of a new positioning system already?

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!"

@leftmono1016

20 күн бұрын

I always feel a bit sorry for Warwick having CV (Coventry) post codes.

@Sarge084

20 күн бұрын

That's because the first two letters originally signified the Mail Centre where the mail was sorted. Since then RM has reorganised Mail Centres with the advent of more advanced sorting machinery. My Home town in North Worcestershire has, from the beginning, been a DY (Dudley) postcode, but it is now dealt with by Birmingham Mail Centre.

@dasy2k1

17 күн бұрын

​@@Sarge084 correct. I did some temp work during uni sorting Christmas post. I was working at Warrington mail centre that handles WA - Warrington CW. - Crewe WN - Wigan And half of L - Liverpool

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.

@pholdway5801

14 күн бұрын

All directors of so called ' Charities' need a MUCH smaller salary and only one of them

@LawrenceTimme

9 күн бұрын

Lol its a scam, when your money goes to a "charity" like the tony Blair institute.

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!

@stevemichael8458

20 күн бұрын

"Answers, on a postcard please, to BBC Television Centre, Shepherds Bush, London W12 8QT" - 60 years later I can still remember that postcode :)

@matthewryan4844

20 күн бұрын

Different programmes on the bbc had different postcodes. I remember Cbbc had an aardvark in the 90s that said it W12 6 A Ayyyyyyyy….. Live and kicking was W12 6LA and watchdogs one ended 6WD.

@matthewryan4844

20 күн бұрын

Im guessing the qt ending was for question time.

@leftmono1016

20 күн бұрын

@@stevemichael8458- me too, W12 8QT was burned into my memory many years ago!

@arwelp

20 күн бұрын

Ah yes, I remember BS8 2LR for a lot of BBC programmes from Bristol…

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.

@garybarnes4169

10 күн бұрын

Yeah, what was Shrewsbury sorting office is now just a delivery office, with the sorting done IIRC in Chester. Ironic, as a lot of Wales still has an SY postcode.

@francesatty7022

2 күн бұрын

GL is all of Gloucestershire, not just Gloucester!

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 🙂

@BlueTangWebSystems

20 күн бұрын

Norwich and Ipswich are used for trials such as this and they are considered as 'average' towns.

"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".

@johnwynne2179

21 күн бұрын

Yep, live on the Wirral, thanks to Thatcher, we ended up in Merseyside, even thought the South side is on the Dee, we still have the CH post code, some of the older generation still put Cheshire before their postcode. And car registrations on the Wirral start with a D and not M, due to all cars being registered in Chester, the D prefix also applies to North Shropshire and Flintshire

@_starfiend

21 күн бұрын

@@johnwynne2179 Well Southport was forced into the soviet socialist republic of merseyside, but actually has a Preston, PR, postcode.

@jinxvrs

21 күн бұрын

@@johnwynne2179 I'm always amused by the "D" for Deeside car registration plates. Of the two local DVLA offices, Chester is certainly on the Dee. However, the other office, Shrewsbury, has the Severn flowing through it.

@lizvickers7156

21 күн бұрын

​@@johnwynne2179My partner is from the Wirral. Brombourgh. We now live not far from Crewe.

@AnthonyValentine-vm1yc

20 күн бұрын

Did car/home insurance leap up with the change to L?

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.

@davidmartin8211

20 күн бұрын

Most mass mailings or business mailings will use the 5+4 ZIP code. People who still address letters or invitations will usually only use the 5 digit ZIP code.

@PhilMasters

20 күн бұрын

Does that work? Adding four numeric digits gives you 10,000 possibilities. By the sounds of it, there will be a lot more than 10,000 different homes within one ZIP code area.

@kenbrown2808

20 күн бұрын

@@PhilMasters once there are more than 10,000 distinct addresses in a ZIP code, they tend to add another ZIP code.

@garybarnes4169

18 күн бұрын

I'm not going to give out my postcode here, because the interwebs is scary, and full of nutters, but if you do put my postcode into Google Maps, it used to plonk a pin right in the middle of my house. Now it seems to draw the outline of the postcode boundary. Hah, I looked up another postcode: SY4 4UF. Two houses and 300+ acres of deer park. The addresses of the houses? 1 Deer Park Cottages, and erm, oh yes, 2 Deer Park Cottages.

@Pystro

14 күн бұрын

@@PhilMasters Not a lot more. With the example mentioned in the video of 16k homes in the 5-digit code or just over 10k in my case, a 9-digit US zip code could theoretically _almost_ define a single home. But I think they're usually one side of a block.

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.

@christineburns5246

8 күн бұрын

Eircodes are particularly useful if you’re an EV driver as a charger can have its own code and you can navigate right up to the plug! Shorter than What Three Words too!

@johanstravel

4 күн бұрын

Postcodes in the Netherlands are written as "4 numbers 2 letters housenumber" and are thus also unique to the building. Very structured with lower last 2 numbers in city centers for example. Makes navigation very easy.

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

@zaklex3165

20 күн бұрын

I'm sorry, but you CAN find a U.S. address with just the Zip Code...it's just as simple as plugging it into Google maps by itself though! Most business mail is still Zip+4, which is really simple to use.

@neothermic1

15 күн бұрын

@@zaklex3165 That wholly depends. Vastly. If I only give you the five digit zip code, you're not getting a single address out of it unless it's a special one. A great example is 93555, which covers a population of 33,060, or 92277 which covers 26,666 people. A comparison here is that GU21 4TF (a random postcode I've plucked from maps) covers 30 houses exactly. I lived in the states for a number of years and had at least five addresses over there, and no one ever gave me the Zip+4 for any of them. It's very uncommon for residential.

@Schwuuuuup

14 күн бұрын

I don't understand the assumption that you need a more complicated (alphanumeric!) code to be able to find an address by it. In Germany we have 5 digits but they are a bit redundant. You add them to street name, house number and city name. This helps sorting and clarify which address you mean when there are streets with the same name (happens when villages and towns fuse into bigger cities) The numbers are chosen in a similar fashion to the us, where you can roughly guess the region by the leading one or two numbers. It was made for a time when mail was more prominent and you automatically knew the post code for the postcard to your friend home from vacation, because they had the same as you, living a few streets over from your place. But mail usually gets there even without a code, although it might take a while longer. And don't forget Germany and more so the UK are tiny compared to the US. So matching letters with city names wouldn't really work. Also... 7 digit alphanumeric code is almost enough to give every human on earth 10 postcodes of their own. Why is the code so long and complicated? I know, i know redundancy... But that's what the human readable street address is for

@neothermic1

14 күн бұрын

@@Schwuuuuup Postcodes arn't complicated just because they're alphanumeric, and they're not always 7 characters. They follow a pattern which makes memory of them very easy, the first two characters are the postal area, which can either be super local (SW for South West London), or rather huge (SY for all of the 'Shrewsbury' area, which ends up being the majority of mid-wales). There's only 121 of these, so at this point we're not a 7 random alphanumeric, we're 1 or 2 fixed characters (eg Birmingham's area is "B", so B1 is a Birmingham postcode). Then you have the number, and these just increment, usually in a spiral from the center of the postcode area. These are your postcode districts, and they further subdivide the postal area. This has a super advantage in postal routing, as if I'm in one postcode district (Say I'm in B3 - one part of Birmingham), and I post something to another close postal district (say B1), then the letter doesn't have to leave the Birmingham area; it's just re-routed on the more local district system. So in short, your first 2-4 characters of a postcode are actually formulaic, and easy to remember. The last 3 characters are always 3 characters, they always start with a number and then have two letters following. So this is the 'random' bit (there *is* actually a method to this section but it's complicated and no one needs to know it outside of the postal service). So why do we need it? The main advantage is the human section of the address (street names, town names, etc) become redundant; you can deliver a letter with a house number and a postal code only in about 98% of situations (the other 2% need maybe the name of a block of flats if there's an ambiguous construction). This is why the postal service used to be able to deliver letters within 24 hours from anywhere in the UK to anywhere in the UK even before the advent of more modern technology (the Post Office started with electromechanical sorting systems in the late 1950s!). One other hidden advantage of this system is the last 3 characters have a special sort order which is the order that you bundle the letters up for delivery routes. This lets them be sorted into the so-called walk sequences - the order in which you walk to deliver them. It's basically the way of solving the travelling salesman problem but without the complexity cost!

@AnotherPointOfView944

6 күн бұрын

@@Schwuuuuup The UK system not more complicated. Its very simple, and moreover, compact. From what you are saying your German 5 digit code by itself is not sufficient to specify an address down to street level (same as the US zip code in that respect).

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.

@arwelp

20 күн бұрын

When I was applying to the University of East Anglia at the end of 1975, they were still using the old code NOR 88C and the new one NR4 7TJ.

@carolineskipper6976

20 күн бұрын

@@arwelp The new one is unexpectedly familiar to me! I could never have told you what it was, but looking at it I'm nodding!

@brucegoatly

19 күн бұрын

@carolineskipper697 Yes, it's feasible to use just the house number and postcode to find an individual address. If the house has no number, use the house name initial(s). Unfortunately our house name has the initials WC, so we never use this system...

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 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."

@nailsofinterest

8 күн бұрын

That's a cute saying!!

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!)

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

@caw25sha

20 күн бұрын

What was his postcode? 😂

@hughtube5154

20 күн бұрын

Another fun fact about Norwich, it was the first city in the UK to offer free wifi citywide.

@maudeboggins9834

20 күн бұрын

Wow. Really? Goodness what a surprise. I remember his fatal accident, I was watching the race, got up as I wanted to put the kettle on, I returned & poor Mr. Senna had crashed. Fun fact, his name is DeSilva Senna, his mother's name is Senna & 40% of the Brazil are DeSilva so he took his mother's name as his name.

@gleggett3817

14 күн бұрын

​@@hughtube5154How about the fun fact that it was said of Norwich "a church for every Sunday of the year and a pub for every day"

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.

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!😊

@timothyjohnston4083

13 күн бұрын

More factoids about the Canadian postal code: A Canadian postal code with "0" as the second character is a rural address. Or at least used to be a rural address. With the sprawling of cities and suburbs, this is not always a hard-and-fast rule. Even numbered houses on a street will have a postal code different than the odd numbered ones. So, just because your live at 10 Main Street does not mean your neighbour at 13 Main Street will have the same postal code.

@davidyoung5114

8 күн бұрын

Post Codes in Canada go alphabetically east to west, avoiding letters that can be confused (no 'D', 'F', 'I' or '0'). P.E.I. codes start with C, New Brunswick codes start with E, Quebec codes start with G, H, or J, Ontario codes start with K, L, M, N, or P, Manitoba codes start with R, Saskatchewan codes start with S, Alberta codes start with T, Nunavut and the Western Arctic codes start with X, and Yukon codes start with Y. Simple, but it works!

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).

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 😊

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.

@solentbum

15 күн бұрын

When my home was first issued with a postcode in the 1960's I tried sending a letter with just the code and house number . It took three weeks to arrive! Now of course ALL you need is the code and house number.

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).

@caw25sha

20 күн бұрын

Blue Peter really needed their own postcode as well didn't they? I think Television Centre was W1A 1AA.

@stevemichael8458

20 күн бұрын

@@caw25sha That was BBC Radio in Portland Place in the West End. Television centre was W12 8nn - for Blue Peter competition entries it was W12 8QT. "Answers on a postcard please"!!

@leohickey4953

20 күн бұрын

Fan mail for Bonnie Langford, or Mark Curry?

@willemslie

20 күн бұрын

@@caw25sha That's not specific to Blue Peter: it's the postcode for the BBC HQ on Portland Place.

@willemslie

20 күн бұрын

@@stevemichael8458 The postcode all kids of our generation knew. It was the BBC sorting office on Lime Grove.

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.

@jonathanfinan722

21 күн бұрын

There was or is, years since I've been near, a pub in the woods near Fagley that had the bogs in Leeds but the bar in Bradford and Bradford number. I want to say Red Pig. Ah bugger. Apparently it's been shut a few years after a fire.

@kgbgb3663

19 күн бұрын

@@jonathanfinan722 Before Brighton and Hove merged to form Brighton and Hove (if you see what I mean), a friend of mine had a house in Hove whose garage was in Brighton. It caused a surprising amount of inconvenience, what with getting two rates bills, and so on. She was delighted with the merger.

@andrewmarshall9340

13 күн бұрын

For years France had two digit prefixes (e.g. 75 for Paris) for codes for vehicle registration plates, post codes and telephone dialling codes for all 98 departments, including far flung overseas territories. Only the postcodes are still in place these days

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.

@TheMoonRover

14 күн бұрын

Yeah, I worked at a furniture shop where deliveries were priced by postcode area. We literally had a map showing the different numbered areas across the city and surrounding region. They basically spiral out clockwise.

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

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.

@KaiHenningsen

20 күн бұрын

I could give them my German 5-digit _Postleitzahl_ (postal code). I forget where, but there is a US place with the same code. Hmm ... Incidentally, it works pretty much exactly like the US code, except there is no 5+4 system that I know of. It doesn't so much point to a post office because delivering mail is no longer based on post offices, but it describes an area or, sometimes, a high.traffic customer. For example, the _Bundestag_ is 11011.

@KaiHenningsen

20 күн бұрын

Oh, and we went from 4 to 5 digits when the reunification happened, and at the time also fixed a few irritations with the old system. I worked on converting customer databases at the time. I believe one of the new things was being able to address big mail customers, and also in general be more specific - I think this city went from one code to about half a dozen.

@ianhutchinson1783

19 күн бұрын

If she was from the UK it is 00144. The +4 takes you to England, Scotland, Wales or N. Ireland. I have used it to order stuff from the US when an online retailer demands a ZIP code.

@myotherchannel2729

10 күн бұрын

I am wondering whether that system still exists. Can't find much about it online.

@nailsofinterest

8 күн бұрын

The person working at the park obviously doesn't live in a " tourist state" in Florida, we know to say postal code. Covers more people, plus we use it here too.

Great video Kayln & love watching your videos. ❤

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.

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.

@DraigBlackCat

14 күн бұрын

Slight correction. The courier may deliver it correctly as per the post code or, just as likely, they will mis-read it and deliver the item elsewhere!

@user-yd4ui5vx3b

3 күн бұрын

​@@DraigBlackCatEvri does that a lot.

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.

@jeremybarker7577

20 күн бұрын

The original system had a 3-letter code for the post town. As far as I know the only ones ever actually used were NOR for Norwich and NPT for Newport in South Wales. Internally Royal Mail uses two-letter codes for many town names that are additional to the two-letter initial parts of postcodes. They can most often be seen on their delivery vans which will have soemthing like "NA10" or "BC02" on them in characters about 5cm high.

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.

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.

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

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.

@alexmiller7721

15 күн бұрын

Similar story. My uncle lived in a small village in the Scottish Highlands. Someone in Canada sent him a letter with only his nickname and "Scotland" written on the envelope. The letter got to London and from there was sent on to Glasgow. My uncle previously lived in Glasgow and was quite well known in the pub music circuit. Somebody in the sorting office recognised his nickname and knew he had moved to the Highlands, so the letter was sent to Inverness with his proper name added. From there, it somehow ended up on the northbound train and was dropped off in Lairg, which happens to be the location of the main sorting office for the region. The local postie went to pick up the mail there, recognised the name on the envelope and delivered it to the right address only 3 days after it was sent.

@chippydogwoofwoof

15 күн бұрын

@@alexmiller7721 That's so cool! It's a shame we have lost so much of the personal touch because so much is automated now.

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! 😁

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).

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.

@jerry2357

20 күн бұрын

Surely, the in code always has 3 characters, normally a digit and two alphabetic characters? So it couldn't be E1 41AA, because this would give the in code 4 characters?

@Bakers_Doesnt

20 күн бұрын

If the postcode is causing issues, you can apply to have the postcode changed. Usually only the Post Office has the authority to do that, but as part of my job I had the sign-on to do it as well.

@stephenlee5929

20 күн бұрын

@@jerry2357 Having checked via .gov.uk it seems you are right, according to 2017 standards. Sorry I have been working with (IT Coding) systems since 1974, and the coding method with either 3 or 4 character in the In-code was true in late 2000's, but I haven't check the standards since. Not sure when the change was made. Also not sure what happened to the addresses which had 4digit in-codes, many were in the south-west. Sorry for misinformation.

I enjoyed the watch. Thank yo for making the film

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.

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.

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.

@jeremybarker7577

20 күн бұрын

Quite a number of larger businesses have multiple postcodes.

Every day’s a school day, cool video

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

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.

@wessexdruid7598

20 күн бұрын

Just as you can see where the DVLA office was located where your car was registered, from its number plate.

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.

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

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.

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.

@TheMoonRover

14 күн бұрын

And even when there are house numbers, they're not always logical. I used to live on a street where one side went: 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, 9... and the other side went 2, 4, (big gap), 6, 8, 10... with 1 across from 6. The 1-3 had an additional name to distinguish them but it often got missed off.

@CartoType

7 күн бұрын

And not all of us live on named roads. My house has no number, just a name, and is on an unclassified private road with no name. It shares a postcode with the other seventy houses in the village.

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.

@geoffm499

21 күн бұрын

Non geographic "postcodes" also used at end of BFPO addresses to ensure mail goes to forces mail handling.

That was super interesting, thanks!

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!

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.

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

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!

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

@GirlGoneLondonofficial

16 күн бұрын

Love these facts! Thanks so much for sharing and watching!

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.

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.

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!

When I was working for the Royal Mail a few years back, we were told that if we came across a piece of mail destined for the United States, we had to include the outcode (if it was present) as part of the export procedure, because it would determine which international airport would receive the mail (unlike the UK, where all mail arriving from overseas always lands at Heathrow) As far as our training was concerned, the US 5+4 zip code is still very much in use today, just that most people didn't bother with the +4 bit, which formed the incode. Essentially though writing "90210" is functionally similar to writing "SW5"

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.

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.

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

Good stuff as always

Italy has macro region (north to south east to west) province and two digit for municipalities. Smaller provinces capitals ends with 100 like 41100 (was) Modena before was split. Subdivided provincial capitols subdivisions are like xy1zt while village code are still xy0zt there should be some anomalies (like merged / splitted provinces) but mostly is like this.

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.

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.

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)

Great video. Very informative.

@GirlGoneLondonofficial

21 күн бұрын

Thanks for watching!

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

@Grizzly01-vr4pn

20 күн бұрын

The full jingle was: "Pass on your postcode. You’re not properly addressed without it."

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

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

@GirlGoneLondonofficial

21 күн бұрын

I hadn't either! I was obsessed!

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.

In Canada, we have a postal code similar to the UK (and was based on the British system. They decided the US zip code system wasn't precise enough. ) Like the UK, our postal codes often are for a smaller number of houses (my postal code is for 10 houses on one side of the street). It as implemented in 1971 with the advent of mechanical letter sorting. It is 6 digits with both letters and numbers and a space ie. A1A 2B2 (the order is always like this letter-number-letter followed by number-letter-number). The first number indicates a region, often an entire province but we in Toronto have our own letter M because we are the largest city in the country and have more people living here than some provinces. In Toronto, the number indicates an area from going from east to west). The only disadvantage to Canadian postal code is that letters & numbers alternate which involves having to use a shift key when typing.

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!

@Wordavee1

19 күн бұрын

What3words is brilliant, pinpointed down to 3m. (That's 10ft Americans!)

@chippycarpentry

18 күн бұрын

Never used what 3 words but constantly have people totally lost having used it turning up at our farm often the real location is miles away. If you want to pinpoint a location postcode is way more accurate even in rural locations or latitude and longitude from an old fashioned map will pinpoint to within feet Google maps will also give you latitude and longitude. What 3 words chooses words that mean nothing to anyone "how can I help you" what 3 words sent me here cat:wall:boat: 🤔🥴

@crossleydd42

18 күн бұрын

@@Wordavee1 When we broke down on motorway recently, the car recovery folk asked for a What3Word reference to find us. Brilliant, as motorways don't have postcodes!

@Brian3989

18 күн бұрын

@@crossleydd42 But every motorway has a distance marker every 100 metres, shown on the telephones and post each 100 metres. M5 A 88.5 is M5 south bound 88.5 km from start, while M5 B 88.5 is northbound.

@crossleydd42

17 күн бұрын

@@Brian3989 You're telling me something that I didn't know and I'm sure I'm not alone. The problem is that one doesn't note this regularly in the expectation of breaking down at any moment and would have to walk along to find it. And I broke down in the dark, inevitability, for this year, in heavy rain. The advantage of What3Words is that it's two- way, with the rescuers tracking their given reference with their mobiles, too. Of course, having a mobile and signal is helpful!!! And only motorways have the system you mention.

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

@trickygoose2

11 күн бұрын

If I recall correctly, you also find PO postcodes on the Isle of Wight.

@morini500dave

11 күн бұрын

@@trickygoose2 PO 32.

Great video!

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.

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.

@caw25sha

20 күн бұрын

Same with my flats. Our postman told me there is a maximum of 60 addresses per postcode, and as there are 80 flats in this building it has two postcodes. They aren't consecutive though but very close.

Most often any building with a 98 or 99 ending indicates it is a building requiring it's own large independent van. For large companies with massive amounts of mail. This can be seen from the list you supplied. The machines or human sorters see 98 or 99 and they know to place it into the correct area. Otherwise you would have many mail personnel delivering mail to only one company. It's similar for building with a 1 ending tends to be a building that is large and has lots of mail, taking up one block.

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

@Codysdab

16 күн бұрын

All I need to write is "23 PO22 8EH UK" and you know exactly where I am right now. Its handy for a lot of things.

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.

@daftirishmarej1827

20 күн бұрын

Wow. From when? I had D6 in Dublin and nothing in Waterford. 20 years ago though, so...

@tonys1636

20 күн бұрын

@@daftirishmarej1827 Sometime in the past 15 years, can't remember exactly when now. Mine in Bandon, Cork is P72 K5** (last two digits omitted).

@ctid107

20 күн бұрын

Eircodes have the major drawback that they have to issue a new one for each new property. The UK system has the advantage that new codes are only needed for each new road or street. The UK system can also identify an Individual property easily with 1 or 2 extra digits for the property number. It also follows the logical town/street/number system. I know one of the team who worked on Eircodes and there is now some regret regarding the 4 character property identifier system that was chosen.

@joemulhall5202

2 күн бұрын

From ​July 2015...@@daftirishmarej1827

@joemulhall5202

2 күн бұрын

​@@tonys1636From July 2015

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.......

@kgbgb3663

19 күн бұрын

So the "O" stands for a word lacking the last three letters of the one I first guessed?

@MillsyLM

19 күн бұрын

And yet I regularly manage to deliver mail with the bare minimum of information. The amount of times I've correctly delivered wrongly or poorly addressed items over the last 21 years are too numerous to count.

@davidmartin3947

19 күн бұрын

@@MillsyLM Some postmen and women are marvellous. Unfortunately some are not, and neither are their offices. I personally got my address added to Google Maps, and Royal Mail could not find it, repeatedly. When questioned they said that they don't use google, and the address was not on their wonderful proprietary system!

@MillsyLM

19 күн бұрын

@@davidmartin3947 they are lying to you but you know that anyway. There are as yet unfinished buildings with addresses that can be found on the system, I know this because we have such a property in the local area that required searching for today 😁

The US has 3 versions Zip, Zip+4 and Zip+4 Carrier routed. My Post Office has its own cod The +4 is my (4 digit) postal box. Another tidbit. There are Zip codes that include places in 2 STATES (bun not the entire state) What I like about UK and Canada postal codes. The alternate letters and numbers (Canada is the flip), making it easier to spot a dropped character

I grew up near Grimsby which had postcodes starting with DN for Doncaster. Strange given Doncaster has about the same population but is about 60 miles away

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

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

@andrewmarshall9340

13 күн бұрын

Bicycles were often stamped with a security code of house number / postcode, a very efficient way to trace the owner in the distant days when bike theft wasn't such a huge, massively lucrative trade.

Another great topic. Yes, the UK system is better than the US system, and I am being entirely objective about that. It must be more difficult to check addresses in the US whereas in the UK you usually just need a house or flat number and post code to define a unique address. I used to find it infuriating when a website would ask for a ZIP code and would not recognise UK postcodes but that seems to have ended. I love the list of special post codes you pinned - maybe one day you can apply for a special post code once you are officially a national treasure. I expect you know that the code 'E20' used for the Olympic Park was originally for the BBC soap opera 'East Enders'.

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.

@castlering

15 күн бұрын

The numbering system is a tad random though. Subsequent numbers aren't next to each other. There would be way too many places here in the UK for a system like the Irish one. It's like the Irish car number plates - it would be difficult to do here due to the sheer number of vehicles.

@dzzope

12 күн бұрын

@@castlering no it's not, you just need to use more of the 3 digit prefixes, Ireland has barely touched the number of combinations.. and if you still need more prefixes, just make it 4 digits. Alpha numeric makes the number of combinations just massive and adding an additional character makes it orders of magnitude more.

@alanrossiter6626

3 күн бұрын

@@castlering The 'random' is intentional, to reduce chance of making an error by assumption. Eircode is 7 characters, in form of A01 B2C3. The first 3 characters define a general geographical area, after that it is random. 26 x 10x 10 x 26 x 10 x 26 x 10 = 175,760,000 combinations, for a population of 5,000,000. So each person could have 35 Eircodes before we have to add an extra digit (A01 B2C3D) to take it to 913 possible Eircodes per person. Re the car number plates, you're wrong - Ireland is really simple and is infinitely scalable. It's year half (eg 241 for Jan-June 2024, 242 for July-Dec 2024), then a county code, then a number related to the order in which one registered that car in that county in that half year. So 241-D-1234 is the 1234th car registered in Dublin during the period Jan-June 2024. UK could have exact same, e.g. 241-CU-1234 is the 1234th car registered in Cumbria in Jan to June 2024, YO for Yorkshire, CW for Cornwall, DN for Devon, etc

Some issues do come up with some industrial sites. The postcode will take you there but could be dozens to hundreds of units.

Living in rural Wales, my postcode covers a row of 7 properties, easy for delivery drivers.

Wow, fascinating. I live in Norwich and never realised we were at the forefront of developing the current-day postcodes in the UK. How does post get sorted once it's got to the zipcode area? Does it still get automated some other way to get it closer to the actual address?

Some special entities have more than one postcode especially if they recieve absolutely huge amounts of mail where it can be sorted by department The DVLA (our equivalent of the DMV for Americans) in Swansea for example has different postcodes for driving licence applications, renewals, registering the sale of a vehicle, and so on... In fact they have an entire first half to themselves! SA99 is the DVLA The second half is just which department

The first part of our postcode is like your zipcode, the second part is the true location bit within that zone. So for us, house number (or name) + the two parts of the code give a full address. You can think of it as: house number/name, postal area, district, the final localiser (incode.) Sometimes you only need the postcode as it identifies a unqiue location. EDIT: Ignore me, you explained it all.

Before the postcode addresses included the district and county of you wanted to be sure a letter would arrive . It's one of those things that was pretty far sighted considering how useful - even essential it's become . An interesting topic .

It was funny giving my UK postcode when I visited the states and stores sometimes asked for a zip code, the look of panic on the clerk's face as they realise our's have letters. By the third or fourth time I got asked I just ended up telling them I live in Britain and don't have a ZIP.