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What is the minimal possible UK address?

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Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I write just an EirCode on an envelope the letter would be delivered anyways.

Are you sure? It might be a case of someone in the system Googling the address and writing it in.

I've tried to do that several times, it always worked. I don't know why/how but it works.

Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?

#253

In the US, someone I know who had a Post Office box liked writing simply `box-number zip-code` as their address. It worked. Eg, if you wrote on an envelope: 1034 21240 It would get there! You might want to add a "Box" before the "1034" to be safe -- and to disambiguate between a house number, as in OP? (I'm not sure just a house number would ever work in the USA?) But it looks cooler with just two numbers. Especially…

I can confirm that " New York New York, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109" doesn't work. They wanted the actual street address of the hotel. Which surprised me, as I'm used to big hotels being well-known enough that you can just write a room number, hotel name and city and have it arrive in the right place.

I wonder if it would have worked at a hotel that does not share the name of a place.

Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?

#254

You can put just ‘HMRC’ (UK tax department) on a letter (with paid postage) and it will get to them.

There are also freepost addresses, where you can write "Freepost CompanyName" with no postage. I've found one on google which is just "Freepost OAL".

Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?

#256
post #88

Olga was a famous doorkeeper at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Students used to send her postcards from their journeys. It became so popular that it was enough to write "Olga, Sweden" for her to get the letters [0] (source in swedish). [0]: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Boberg

I spent the first couple years of my life in a small town in Ireland. Small enough that the houses had names, not numbers — my parents were Tolkien fans, and ours became "Lorien".

I'm told that letters were addressed simply, "Lorien, [town name]"

Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?

#257
post #88

Olga was a famous doorkeeper at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Students used to send her postcards from their journeys. It became so popular that it was enough to write "Olga, Sweden" for her to get the letters [0] (source in swedish). [0]: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Boberg

Legend has it that when he was director of music at Eton College, a postcard was delivered to Ralph Alwood from China simply addressed: "Ralph, Eton"

I can recall a letter from Japan being delivered with "Wolfram, Eton, England" on it. So I believe the parent comment!

Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?

#258
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll bet "Rishi Sunak" would get to 10 Downing Street. Although that's also an address with it's own postcode, so "SW1A 2AA" would also get there.

I'll bet "Rishi Sunak" would get to 10 Downing Street. I wonder if random mail sent to top level politicians actually gets to them. The intention is clear, yes, but there's probably layers of security that will prevent it from getting to its intended address...

If it's a reasonable letter, I doubt the way it's addressed makes any difference.

Members of Parliament have a duty to listen and respond to their constituents, which in Sunak's case is the people of Richmond, North Yorkshire. I don't live there, but I have lived in a senior government minister's constituency in the past. I wrote one letter, and I did get a reply — I doubt my letter was directly read by the minister, but it was probably tallied up by an assistant "15 letters supporting this so far, 8 against".

Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?

#259
As a conversation topic in our engineering team recently, we discussed what the shortest possible message you could send to pinpoint as specific a position on earth, unambiguously, in as few possible characters, in plain readable non-coded language.

Like "top of the great pyramid", for example, looks like it is a 200 sq ft area, in 25 characters of message.

Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?

#260
post #88

Olga was a famous doorkeeper at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Students used to send her postcards from their journeys. It became so popular that it was enough to write "Olga, Sweden" for her to get the letters [0] (source in swedish). [0]: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Boberg

For her whole life, my grandma would receive any mail sent to her full name and zip code. Since it was a small town and everyone at the post office knew her.

Not as impressive as Olga, of course, but close!

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