Postcode area boundaries: Google

List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom

For the purposes of directing mail, the United Kingdom is divided by Royal Mail into postcode areas. The postcode area is the
largest geographical unit used and forms the initial characters of the alphanumeric UK postcode.[1] There are currently 121
geographic postcode areas in use in the UK and a further 3 often combined with these covering the Crown Dependencies of
Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man.

Contents
1 Subdivision
2 Scope
3 United Kingdom postcode areas
4 Crown dependencies
5 Defunct postcode areas
5.1 London NE and S
5.2 Glasgow
5.3 Norwich and Croydon
6 Non-geographic postcodes
6.1 GIR
6.2 BF
6.3 BX
6.4 QC
6.5 XX
7 Overseas territories
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Subdivision
Each postcode area is further divided into post towns and postcode districts.[1] There are on average 20 postcode districts to a
postcode area.[1] The London post town is instead divided into several postcode areas.
[2]

Scope
The single or pair of letters chosen for postcode areas are generally intended as a mnemonic for the places served.[1] Postcode areas,
post towns and postcode districts do not follow political boundaries and usually serve much larger areas than the place names with
which they are associated. For example, within the PA postcode area the PA1 and PA78 postcode districts are 140 miles apart; and the
eight postcode areas of the London post town cover only 40% of Greater London.[2] The remainder of its area is covered by sections
of twelve adjoining postcode areas:EN, IG, RM, DA, BR, TN, CR, SM, KT, TW, HA and UB.[2]

United Kingdom postcode areas

Postcode Postcode area
Code formation
area name[1][3]
AB Aberdeen
AL St Albans
B Birmingham
BA Bath
BB Blackburn
BD Bradford
BH Bournemouth
BL Bolton
BN Brighton
BR Bromley
BS Bristol
BT Belfast
CA Carlisle
CB Cambridge
CF Cardiff
CH Chester
CM Chelmsford
Map of postcode areas in the United Kingdom and
CO Colchester
Crown dependencies, with links to each postcode
CR Croydon area
CT Canterbury
CV Coventry
CW Crewe
DA Dartford
DD Dundee
DE Derby

DG Dumfries[1] Dumfries and Galloway

DH Durham
DL Darlington
DN Doncaster
DT Dorchester
DY Dudley
E East London
East Central
EC
London
EH Edinburgh
EN Enfield
EX Exeter
FK Falkirk
FY Blackpool[1] The Fylde
G Glasgow
GL Gloucester
GU Guildford
HA Harrow
HD Huddersfield
HG Harrogate
Hemel
HP
Hempstead
HR Hereford
Outer First and last letters of
HS
Hebrides[1] Hebrides

HU Hull
HX Halifax
Possibly Ilford and
IG Ilford[1] Chigwell, or Ilford and
Barking[4]
IP Ipswich
IV Inverness
KA Kilmarnock
Kingston upon
KT
Thames
KW Kirkwall
KY Kirkcaldy
L Liverpool
LA Lancaster
Llandrindod
LD
Wells[1]
LE Leicester
LL Llandudno
LN Lincoln
LS Leeds
LU Luton
M Manchester
Medway (now sometimes
ME Rochester[1]
known as Maidstone[5])
MK Milton Keynes
ML Motherwell
N North London
Newcastle
NE
upon Tyne
NG Nottingham
NN Northampton
NP Newport
NR Norwich
North West
NW
London
OL Oldham
OX Oxford
PA Paisley
PE Peterborough
PH Perth
PL Plymouth
PO Portsmouth
PR Preston
RG Reading
RH Redhill
RM Romford
S Sheffield
SA Swansea
South East
SE
London
SG Stevenage
SK Stockport
SL Slough
Possibly Sutton and
Morden, the two post towns
SM Sutton[1] that are within the SM area
[4]

SN Swindon
SO Southampton

SP Salisbury[1] Salisbury Plain

SR Sunderland
Southend-on-
SS
Sea
ST Stoke-on-Trent
South West
SW
London
SY Shrewsbury
TA Taunton

TD Galashiels[1] Tweeddale

TF Telford
Tunbridge
TN
Wells[1]
TQ Torquay
TR Truro

TS Cleveland[1] Teesside
 TW Twickenham

UB Southall[1] Uxbridge

W West London
WA Warrington
Western
WC
Central London
WD Watford
WF Wakefield
WN Wigan
WR Worcester
WS Walsall
WV Wolverhampton
YO York

ZE Lerwick[1] Zetland

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.[1]

Postcode area Postcode area name

GY Guernsey
JE Jersey
IM Isle of Man

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 G40 respectively
.

Norwich and Croydon

Norwich and Croydon were used for a postcode experiment in the late 1960s, which was replaced by the current system. The format
was of the form NOR or CRO followed by two numbers and a letter
, e.g. NOR 07A.

Non-geographic postcodes
Note that a number of non-geographic postcode sectors are also contained within geographic postcode areas.
GIR
GIR 0AA is a postcode created for Girobank in Bootle. It remained in use by its successors when Girobank was taken over by
Alliance & Leicester and subsequently by Santander UK.

BF
The BF postcode area was introduced in 2012 to provide optional postcodes for British Forces Post Office addresses, for consistency
with the layout of other UK addresses. It uses the national non-geographic post town "BFPO" and, as of 2012, the postcode district
"BF1".

BX
The non-geographic postcode area BX has been introduced for addresses which do not include a locality: this allows large
organisations long-term flexibility as to where they receive their mail. This postcode area is used by Lloyds Banking Group (BX1
1LT) and parts of the HM Revenue and Customs like VAT Central Unit (BX5 5AT) and Pay as You Earn (BX9 1AS). Lloyds Bank
also use BX4. After splitting from Lloyds,TSB Bank uses BX4 7SB, the latter part of which, when written, looks similar to "TSB".

QC
QC postcodes are used by awarding bodies when receiving examination scripts from centres via Parcelforce. For example, Edexcel
use the postcode QC77 7ZZ.

XX
The non-geographic postcode XX10 1DD is currently used by Amazon.com to direct customer-returned items carried by Royal Mail
to its Fulfilment Centre in Dunfermline, Scotland.[6] XX10 1AA appears to be in use for the same purpose by ASOS.com, although
when questioned by numerous customers in 2016 and 2017, staff manning their Facebook page seemed to know nothing of it.[7] John
Lewis returns also use the XX postcode. (XX10 1EE)

Overseas territories
Certain British overseas territories have postcodes:
 Postcode Location

AI-2640 Anguilla[8]
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha:
ASCN 1ZZ Ascension Island
STHL 1ZZ Saint Helena
TDCU 1ZZ Tristan da Cunha[9]
BBND 1ZZ British Indian Ocean Territory
BIQQ 1ZZ British Antarctic Territory
FIQQ 1ZZ Falkland Islands
GX11 1AA Gibraltar
PCRN 1ZZ Pitcairn Islands
SIQQ 1ZZ South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

TKCA 1ZZ Turks and Caicos Islands[10]

BFPO 57 / BF1 2AT(Akrotiri)
Akrotiri and Dhekelia
BFPO 58 / BF1 2AU (Dhekelia)
List Bermuda
List Cayman Islands
List British Virgin Islands
List Montserrat

These were introduced to prevent mail being sent to the wrong place, e.g., for St Helena to St Helens, Merseyside[11] and Ascension
Island to Asunción, Paraguay, and many on-line companies will not accept addresses lacking a postcode. Such mail is treated as
international, not inland, so sufficient postage must be used.

See also
List of postcode districts in the United Kingdom
Postcodes in the United Kingdom

References
1. Address Management Guide(http://www.royalmail.com/marketing-services/address-management-unit/address-data-
products/address-management-guide)(5th ed.). Royal Mail Group plc. March 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
2. HMSO, The Inner London Letter Post, (1980)
3. Office for National Statistics(1999). The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom(http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/soci
al-trends-rd/the-official-yearbook-of-the-united-kingdom/the-official-yearbook-of-the-united-kingdom---2000-edition/2
000-edition.pdf) (PDF) (2000 ed.). London: The Stationery Office. "UK Postal Areas", map opposite p. 5.ISBN 0-11-
621098-2. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
4. http://jonathan.rawle.org/2006/07/03/postcodes-in-the-uk/
5. "Quarterly Quality of Service Report to Postcomm – 2009/10 Quarter 1 Report"(ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/pu
blic/ctf/rmg/Quarterly_Quality_Service_Report.pdf)(PDF). Royal Mail. 2009-08-20. pp. 4–8 (table 2). Retrieved
2009-11-06.
6. https://twitter.com/AmazonHelp/status/790603627333292032
7. https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=XX10%201AA
8. "Anguilla Has A Postal Code, AI-2640"(https://web.archive.org/web/20100514113153/http://www
.festival.ai/article/vi
ew/5274), The Anguillian, 12 October 2007
9. First postcode for remote UK isle(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4129636.stm). BBC News. 7 August 2005.
10. Turks and Caicos Islands(http://www.upu.int/post_code/en/countries/TCA.pdf). Bureau International UPU.
11. Landmark birthday for postcode(ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/public/cmwalk/doc/active/doc41000003/Courier%
20Landmark%20Article%20Oct_09.pdf)

External links
Office for National Statistics- Postal geography
OpenStreetMap - Postcode map
Strowger net: postcodes of the UK
Direct Marketing Lists UK postcode map
Business Lists UK postcode map
FREE Vector UK Postcode Maps
PostcodeArea - Demographics, maps, crime rates, house prices and local information for all UK postcodes
Strange Maps - Frank Jacobs - Diagrammatic Map [1]
-

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