- List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom
For the purposes of directing mail, the United Kingdom is divided by the
Royal Mail into a number of postcode areas. The postcode area is the largest geographical unit used and forms the initial characters of the alphanumericUK postcode .Royal Mail - "Address Management Guide", (2004)]ubdivision
Each postcode area is further divided into post towns and postcode districts. There are on average 20 postcode districts to a postcode area. Within the
London postal district the LONDON post town is instead divided into several postcode areas.HMSO, "The Inner London Letter Post", (1980)]cope
The one or two letters chosen for the postcode areas are generally intended as a
mnemonic for the places they serve. The postcode areas,post town s and postcode districts do not follow parish, district, county or national boundaries and usually serve much larger areas than the placenames they are associated with.For example, the postcode areas which comprise the London postal district cover only 40% of
Greater London . The remainder of its area is covered by parts or all of twelve adjoining postcode areas (EN, IG, RM, DA, BR, TN, CR, SM, KT, TW, HA and UB).United Kingdom postcode areas
Crown dependencies
The Crown dependencies (which are not part of the United Kingdom) did not introduce postcodes until later, but use a similar coding scheme. They are separate postal authorities.
Defunct postcode areas
London NE and S
Glasgow
Glasgow, like London, was divided into compass districts: C, W, NW, N, E, SE, S, SW. When postcodes were introduced, these were mapped into the new "G" postcode: C1 became G1, W1 became G11, N1 became G21, E1 became G31, S1 became G41, SW1 became G51, and so on. As NW and SE had never been subdivided they became G20 and G50 respectively.
Dublin
Dublin was split intoDublin postal districts by the Post Office in 1917 at the same time as other major cities in the UK like Liverpool and Manchester. After the creation of theIrish Free State (later theRepublic of Ireland ) the Irish government did not adopt postcodes, however the Dublin postal districts remain to this day and the correct form of address is Dublin 7 etc. The "postcode area D" has not been re-used within the UK.Norwich
Norwich was used for a postcode experiment in the late 1960s, which was replaced by the current system. The format was of the form NOR followed by two numbers and a letter, eg NOR 07A.
References
External links
*
Office for National Statistics - [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/postal_geog.asp Postal Geography]
* [http://www.businesslistsuk.com/postcode_map.htm Business Lists UK Postcode Map ]
*Natural History Museum - [http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/eb/pcregion.dsml?region=london&title=Greater%20London Maps of UK postcode areas]
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