This is a list of postcode areas, used by Royal Mail for the purposes of directing mail within the United Kingdom. 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 three often combined with these covering the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man.
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] with ZE having the lowest (3) and BT the highest (81). The London post town is instead divided into several postcode areas.[2]
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 or local authority administrative boundaries and usually serve much larger areas than the place names with which they are associated. Many post towns are former "county towns" but postcode areas rarely align with the county (or successor authority) area. For example, within the PA postcode area the PA1 and PA78 postcode districts are 140miles apart, and cover 5 local authority areas; 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]
| Postcode area | Postcode area name[3] | Code formation | Number of postcode districts within area | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen | 33 (Highest number 56) | |||
| St Albans | 10 | |||
| Birmingham | 79 (Highest number 98) | |||
| Bath | 19 (Highest number 22) | |||
| Blackburn | 13 (Highest number 18) | |||
| Bradford | 27 (Highest number 99) | |||
| Bournemouth | 26 (Highest number 31) | |||
| Bolton | 10 (Highest number 9) | |||
| Brighton | 30 (Highest number 45) | |||
| Bromley | 8 | |||
| Bristol | 37 (Highest number 49) | |||
| Belfast | 81 (Highest number 94) | |||
| 28 | ||||
| 16 (Highest number 25) | ||||
| 35 (Highest number 83) | ||||
| Chester | 37 (Highest number 66) | |||
| 25 (Highest number 77) | ||||
| Colchester | 16 | |||
| Croydon | 9 (Highest number 8) | |||
| 21 | ||||
| 24 (Highest number 47) | ||||
| Crewe | 12 | |||
| Dartford | 18 | |||
| Dundee | 11 | |||
| 23 (Highest number 75) | ||||
| Dumfries | 15 (Highest number 16) | |||
| 9 | ||||
| 17 | ||||
| Doncaster | 32 (Highest number 41) | |||
| Dorchester | 11 | |||
| 14 | ||||
| East London | 20 (Includes E1W) | |||
| East Central London | 23 (EC is split into four, with EC1, EC2 and EC4 split -A, -M, -N, -R, -V & -Y and EC3 split -A, -M, -N, -R & -V; highest number 4/4Y) | |||
| Edinburgh | 54 (Highest number 55) | |||
| 11 | ||||
| 33 (Highest number 39) | ||||
| Falkirk | 21 | |||
| 8 | ||||
| Glasgow | 52 (Highest number 84) | |||
| 27 (Highest number 56) | ||||
| Guildford | 38 (Highest number 52) | |||
| Harrow | 10 (Highest number 9) | |||
| 9 | ||||
| Harrogate | 5 | |||
| 24 (Highest number 27) | ||||
| Hereford | 9 | |||
| Hebrides | 9 | |||
| Hull | 20 | |||
| Halifax | 7 | |||
| Ilford | Possibly Ilford and Gants Hill (or Barking) | 11 | ||
| Ipswich | 33 | |||
| Inverness | 52 (Highest number 63) | |||
| Kilmarnock | Possibly Kilmarnock and Ayr or Kilmarnock | 30 | ||
| Kingston upon Thames | 24 | |||
| 16 (Highest number 17) | ||||
| Kirkcaldy | 16 | |||
| Liverpool | 40 | |||
| Lancaster | 23 | |||
| Llandrindod Wells | 8 | |||
| Leicester | 21 (Highest number 67) | |||
| Llandudno | 67 (Highest number 78) | |||
| 13 | ||||
| Leeds | 29 | |||
| Luton | 7 | |||
| Manchester | 43 (Highest number 90) | |||
| Medway | 20 | |||
| Milton Keynes | 26 (Highest number 46) | |||
| Motherwell | 12 | |||
| 23 (Includes N1C, Highest number 22) | ||||
| Newcastle upon Tyne[4] [5] | 61 (Highest number 71) | |||
| Nottingham | 29 (Highest number 34) | |||
| Northampton | 19 (Highest number 29) | |||
| Newport | 18 (Highest number 44) | |||
| Norwich | 35 | |||
| North West London | 11 | |||
| Oldham | 16 | |||
| Oxford | Oxford | 27 (Highest number 49) | ||
| 67 (Highest number 80) | ||||
| Peterborough | 38 | |||
| Perth | 43 (Highest number 50) | |||
| Plymouth | 35 | |||
| Portsmouth | Portsmouth | 34 (Highest number 41) | ||
| Preston | 11 (Highest number 26) | |||
| Reading | 30 (Highest number 45) | |||
| Redhill | 20 | |||
| Romford | 20 | |||
| Sheffield | 45 (Highest number 81) | |||
| Swansea | 51 (Highest number 73) | |||
| South East London | 28 | |||
| Stevenage | 19 | |||
| Stockport | 19 (Highest number 23) | |||
| Slough | Slough | 10 (Highest number 9) | ||
| Possibly Sutton and Morden, the two post towns that are within the SM area [6] | 7 | |||
| Swindon | 18 (Highest number 26) | |||
| Southampton | 23 (Highest number 53) | |||
| 11 | ||||
| Sunderland | 8 | |||
| Southend-on-Sea | Southend-on-Sea | 17 | ||
| Stoke-on-Trent | Stoke-on-Trent | 21 | ||
| South West London | 27 (SW1 is split into eight, -A, -E, -H, -P, -V, -W, -X & -Y; highest number 20) | |||
| Shrewsbury | 25 | |||
| Taunton | 24 | |||
| Galashiels | Tweeddale | 15 | ||
| Telford | 13 | |||
| Tunbridge Wells | 40 | |||
| Torquay | 14 | |||
| Truro | 27 | |||
| Teesside | 29 | |||
| Twickenham | 20 | |||
| Southall | 11 | |||
| West London | 26 (W1 is split into thirteen, -A to -D, -F to -H, -J, -K, -S to -U & -W; highest number 14) | |||
| Warrington | 16 | |||
| West Central London | 14 (WC1 is split into eight, -A, -B, -E, -H, -N, -R, -V & -X; WC2 is split into six, -A, -B, -E, -H, -N & -R; highest number 2R) | |||
| Watford | Watford | 11 (Highest number 25) | ||
| Wakefield | 17 | |||
| Wigan | 8 | |||
| Worcester | 15 | |||
| Walsall | 15 | |||
| Wolverhampton | 16 | |||
| York | 29 (Highest number 47) | |||
| Lerwick | 3 |
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 | |
|---|---|---|
| Guernsey | ||
| Jersey | ||
| Isle of Man |
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 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. They were later changed to CR0 (digit '0') and NR1.
When Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland a postal district system was introduced in 1917 by the UK government. The letter D was assigned to Dublin. Upon the establishment of the Irish Free State and later, the Republic of Ireland, the Irish government retained the designation and today it forms part of the Eircode system, a postcode format slightly different from the UK format and identifying individual addresses. Since Irish independence, D has never been reassigned as a postcode area in the UK.
Some postcode areas do not correspond to geographical areas. They can be - postcode areas with no geographic link (for use by Large Volume Receivers, with delivery options determined between the LVR and Royal Mail) and these can for general mail or specifc functions (e.g. parcel returns); non-geographic postcode districts or sectors contained within geographic postcode areas (for LVRs or PO Boxes); and specifc purpose postcodes.
| Postcode area | Purpose | |
|---|---|---|
| BF | British Forces Post Office | |
| BX | National Non-geographic | |
| GIR | Girobank (no longer operating) | |
| XM | Letters to Father Christmas ("XMas") | |
| XX | Parcel returns to LVRs; COVID-19 samples | |
| aa91-aa95 | Business Large Volume Receivers in a postcode district (but this number range is not universally applied, and has many exceptions) | |
| aa96-aa99 | Government Large Volume Receivers in a postcode district (but this number range is not universally applied, and has many exceptions) | |
| aanP | PO Boxes, in some London postcode districts e.g. EC1P, N1P (but is not consistently applied) |
For those within geographic postcode areas, the first two numbers can be any number though they are generally larger than the numbers allocated to geographic districts. Some fall within the range 91 to 95 for businesses (e.g. S98 for payments to MNBA Ltd) and the range 96 to 99 for Government departments (e.g. NE98 for Department of Work and Pensions, Central Office, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, EH99 1SP for the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh). However, there are many exceptions to this - e.g. American Express has the postcode area BN88; in Glasgow G58 1SB is allocated to National Savings, formerly National Savings Bank, as a mnemonic (SB, and with 58 looking like SB), though it is located in the G43 postcode district; and in Glasgow G70 is allocated to HMRC which is located in G67.
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". Each BFPO number is assigned an inward code, which are gouped as: 0 - Germany, 1 - UK, 2 - Rest of Europe, 3 - Rest of World, 4 - Ships and Naval Parties, 5 - Rest of World, Operations and Exercises, 6 - Rest of World, Operations and Exercises.[7]
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), HSBC (BX8 0HB) and parts of HM Revenue and Customs like VAT (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".
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.
XM4 5HQ is a postcode created for Father Christmas.
The non-geographic postcode area XX is used by online retailers for returns by Royal Mail, and for COVID-19 test samples.
| Retailer (or other user) | XX Postcodes | |
|---|---|---|
| Adidas | XX40 4AA | |
| XX10 1DD (Scottish Distribution Centre)[8] XX10 1ZZ (Yorkshire Distribution Centre) XX30 1FF (South West Distribution Centre) XX40 2PP (National Distribution Centre) XX50 1DD (Scottish Distribution Centre) XX50 9SS (Scottish Distribution Centre) XX60 1XX (Princess Royal Distribution Centre) | ||
| XX10 1AA | ||
| XX10 1BB | ||
| XX10 1BT | ||
| XX10 1EE XX40 1EE | ||
| XX10 1SS | ||
| XX20 1DD | ||
| XX10 1FF XX20 1BF XX20 1FF | ||
| XX40 1EH XX40 2HH (toner cartridge recycling) | ||
| Nike | XX40 2HH | |
| XX40 1EJ | ||
| XX40 1EN | ||
| XX40 1EP | ||
| XX40 1EG | ||
| XX40 1HN | ||
| XX40 1YY | ||
| Shein | XX40 3SS | |
| Temu | XX40 1ZZ | |
| Sky | XX40 4UU | |
| Biocentre (COVID-19 testing) | XX40 4FL | |
| AstraZeneca (COVID-19 testing) | XX40 8AZ | |
| Biocentre (COVID-19 testing) Scotland | XX50 5FL |
Certain British Overseas Territories introduced single postal codes for their territory or major sub-sections of it. These are not UK postcodes, even though many are formatted in a similar fashion:
| Territory | Postcode |
|---|---|
| AI-2640[9] | |
| Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | ASCN 1ZZ STHL 1ZZ TDCU 1ZZ |
| BBND 1ZZ | |
| BIQQ 1ZZ | |
| FIQQ 1ZZ[11] | |
| GX11 1AA | |
| PCRN 1ZZ | |
| SIQQ 1ZZ | |
| TKCA 1ZZ[12] | |
Other overseas territories have introduced their own more extensive postcode systems:
| Overseas Territory | Further information | |
|---|---|---|
| Postal codes in Bermuda | ||
| Postal codes in the Cayman Islands | ||
| Postal codes in the British Virgin Islands | ||
| Postal codes in Montserrat |
Civilian residential and business addresses in Akrotiri and Dhekelia are served by Cyprus Postal Services and use Cypriot postal codes.
Mail to Overseas Territories is treated as international if posted in the UK.