Addresses in Britain

Leftoverbricks

Why are addresses in the UK so extensive? They have 5 or 6 lines (plus the country name = 6 or 7 lines). Is all that information really necessary? As a result the font size on my address labels is rather small.
Just curious...

Hoddie

Most have 3, 4 including the country.

123 Any Lane
SOMETOWN
ST1 3CD
UNITED KINGDOM

This is usually all that's needed but for historical reasons, people sometimes include a local area and the county, neither of which have been required for a couple of decades at least. But habits die hard I suppose.

So the above address might be written as:

123 Any Lane
Localville
SOMETOWN
ST1 3CD
West Hampshire
UNITED KINGDOM

You can check exactly what Royal Mail needs by putting the post code into this webpage and selecting the house number or business name:

https://www.royalmail.com/business/find-a-postcode

Jay37

I think if you're posting from within the UK, technically you could get away with recipient, house number and postcode only (and as far as the Royal Mail is concerned they probably don't need a recipient either, as long as it's delivered to the correct house). If the house has a name and number (i.e. Rose Cottage, 15 High Street), you shouldn't need to include the name as that's more likely to be a modern addition, but if it's only got a name (Rose Cottage, High Street) then that needs to be included. Postal town, if included, should be in upper case, as @Hoddie has shown above, but what defines a postal town can be a bit vague, so if in doubt don't capitalize.

Calibrick

Thank you for the enlightenment, I was idly wondering that too! :-)

White Horse Bricks

On a slightly OT note, I have to say our UK Post Office is absolutely amazing at deciphering the terrible scrawls people make instead of legible addresses on envelopes.

In fact one time my wife went to the PO on my behalf, they knew the pile of parcels was from me as they recognised my deranged scribble on the labels.

fitbricks

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/letter-with-address-and-stamp-illustration-540.gif

Simply add UK or United Kingdom at the end.

Leftoverbricks

Thanks all!

Graham

I sold a musical instrument to a fella in the highlands a few years back.
The address was actually directions to the house, in the format “the house up the hill from McGreggors Stone cottage by the river” there was a postcode. It may not be exact, I remember the “up the hill” bit.
UPS did the delivery. He got his Tuba and was happy. I was surprised. I thought I was being had as it was pretty expensive.

Calibrick

@graham, that is wild (and pretty awesome - it sounds like Scotland has a stellar postal delivery system to have figured that out!).

Teup

Haha I've been wondering the same. And they're always so idyllic sounding, with all this Spring Blossom Hill, Kings Meadow, Pebble Road, Creek Valley blabla when it might well be some obscure urban area with nothing but asphalt and ugly brick walls

Hoddie

Royal Mail is pretty good at delivering poorly addressed mail. They have an entire department dedicated to uniting people with their mail, when addresses are poor, water damaged or just plain nonsense like the one in this article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1342102/How-Royal-Mails-detective-skills-delivered-letter-vague-address.html

Hoddie

Perhaps this is a better example:

https://postcardjim.tumblr.com/

fitbricks