Summary

UK addresses are made up of many parts such as sub-building number, dependent thoroughfare, town and postcode. Each one has some of the elements listed below, but not all of them. The only compulsory elements are the town and postcode. When you build a template for mail campaigns you need to consider how you handle each element. Having the right elements in your template means your direct mail is sorted, routed and delivered effectively and efficiently. It also means you can save costs on bulk mailings.

The different elements

• Organisation/Business
  Example: Target Intelligence Ltd
  
  
• Department
  Example: Customer Support Department
  
  
• Whole PO Box
  Many companies have a PO Box. There are two possible reasons:
  1. They don’t want visitors to the address so keep it anonymous.
  2. They have large volumes of mail which need to be delivered to different sections.

The PO Box can be split into two separate elements (name i.e. PO Box and number i.e. 75) if required.

• Sub-building name
  Where a building is split into a number of flats, apartments or business units, Royal Mail lists these against the building name or number as separate delivery points. Flat details are only counted as a separate delivery point if each one has its own letterbox.
  
  
• Whole sub-building number
  A sub-building number is included when a building is split into a number of flats, apartments or business units, but they are given a number/letter combination rather than Flat 5 for example. This is often found in tenement properties.
  Example: 3F
  
  
• Building name 
  The name of a house or the name of commercial premises.
  
  
• Whole building number 
  This is the number that identifies the premises on the street or road. It can contain both a number and letter (e.g. if an extra property is inserted at a later date between two consecutively numbered properties, or in purpose-built blocks of flats)
  Example: 27a
  
  
• Whole Dependent road/street 
  When a town has more than one road or street with the same name you need to store additional information to uniquely identify each one. For some small roads it is possible to make it dependent on an adjoining road. For example there are two addresses containing ”1 Gorse View” in Saxmundham:

  1 Gorse View	1 Gorse View
  Westleton	School Road
  SAXMUNDHAM	Knodishall
  Suffolk	SAXMUNDHAM
  IP17 3BW	Suffolk
  	IP17 1TS

  In the second address, Gorse View is dependent on School Road to identify it if there is no exact locality or postcode information, therefore for this address Gorse View is a dependent thoroughfare. (In the first address Gorse View is a thoroughfare)
  
  
• Whole thoroughfare 
  This is the street that contains the delivery point (unless there is a dependent thoroughfare included in the address).
  Example: High Street
  
  
• Dependent locality 
  If a town has 2 roads or streets with the same name, they need to be uniquely identified. There is not always a dependent thoroughfare, so instead it can be made dependent on a locality. For example there are three 1 Back Lanes in Huddersfield:
  

  1 Back Lane	1 Back Lane	1 Back Lane
  Holmfirth	Clayton West	Shelley
  HUDDERSFIELD	HUDDERSFIELD	HUDDERSFIELD
  HD7 1HQ	HD8 9PP	HD8 8LD

  The correct Back Lane can be identified by the dependent locality.
  
  
• Double dependent locality 
  It is possible that more than one road has the same name in a town or city (the dependent locality). In this case you need more information, normally the exact village that the road is in (this is known as the double dependent locality). An example of this is Miry Lane in Huddersfield:

  2 Miry Lane	2 Miry Lane
  Netherthong	Thongsbridge
  Holmfirth	Holmfirth
  HUDDERSFIELD	HUDDERSFIELD
  HD7 2UQ	HD7 2RY

  The correct Miry Lane can be identified by using the double dependent locality.
  
  
• Town 
  This is the postal town for the address. It may not always be the same as the administrative town boundary.
  Example: Littlehampton
  
  
• County 
  This is the former postal county relating to an address.
  Example: West Sussex
  
  There are 4 different types of county, each with different boundaries.
  1. Administrative
  2. Geographical
  3. Ceremonial
  4. Former postal county
     
     
• Whole Postcode 
  On average a postcode relates to 15 premises, but it can vary from 1 to 100 premises.
  Example: SW4 0QL
  
  Although it is becoming less common, a postcode may cover more than one thoroughfare or dependent thoroughfare. This means that the combination of both premises number and postcode may not be enough to uniquely identify a delivery point. For example the number 7 with the postcode DT10 1NA can have the following addresses:

  7 Hinton St. Mary	7 White Horse Lane	7 Castlemans Cottages
  STURMINSTER NEWTON	Hinton St. Mary	Hinton St. Mary
  Dorset	STURMINSTER NEWTON	STURMINSTER NEWTON
  	Dorset	Dorset
  DT10 1NA	DT10 1NA	DT10 1NA

  This means the full address is needed to make sure it will be delivered to the right address.
  
  

• Postcode formats
  There are six valid formats:

  Letter/number then number/letter/letter	e.g. M2 5BQ
  Letter/number/number then number/letter/letter	e.g. M34 3AB
  Letter/letter/number then number/letter/letter	e.g. DN5 7XY
  Letter/letter/number/number then number/letter/letter	e.g. DN16 9AA
  Letter/number/letter then number/letter/letter	e.g. W1A 4WW
  Letter/letter/number/letter then number/letter/letter	e.g. EC1A 1HQ

  
  The last two characters cannot include the letters:

  C I K M O V

  The postcode can be split into different sections as shown in the table below:

  Postcode section	Section title	How many in the UK?
  BD	Area	124
  BD4	District	Approx. 2 900
  BD4 0	Sector	Approx. 9 730
  BD4 0R	Half sector	Approx. 130 000
  BD4 0RS	Postcode	Approx. 1 750 000

  
  
  
• Country 

  Note that the countries of the United Kingdom are not separated.