A postcode and house number is all that's needed in theory in the UK, so something like `2 A12 1XY`. In reality that would be weird and people would add the street and town. One issue also is that, even though the postcode pinpoints a small group of houses, it might happen to span two streets. It also gets complicated with flats and any number of other corner cases. Addresses are complicated as anyone who has had to…
You might want to read the (short) article ;)
What is the minimal possible UK address?
201–210 of 406 posts
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#202At risk of sounding like a sourpuss, I can't help but think that this is something that most people who live in the UK work out simply by using web forms which autocomplete your address based on simply postcode and number.
There are two flat 1s in my postcode.
One place that would not work was the local council and so I could not get anything done, it took over a year of phoning up for this to be fixed. (of course the council tax database got it correct)
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#203I remember CGP Grey talked about staying with his wife's family in rural Hawaii, on his Cortex podcast. His address included something like "take a left at the big tree". The additional complication was that the USPS wouldn't deliver to the house, so they got a PO box, which is common in rural areas. But the USPS won't allow private carriers to deliver to PO boxes. So you need to use a different address depending on…
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#204In 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…
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#205In Ireland you can just describe the person instead of the actual address and it'll get delivered https://twitter.com/weefeargal/status/1479069076144234497?s=...
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#206Some brilliant examples of postal detective work in Ireland documented here https://www.quora.com/Can-you-send-mail-in-Ireland-with-the-... . eg Petra Kindler and Donal Moore Unfortunately I forgot the street name but it's near a street named *Cul de Sac* The beautiful city of Waterford, well known for its kindly postmen IRELAND
Just as well their boat wasn't called Kingfisher or Meander...
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#207I really like the uk post code system. Most website have auto complete. So address is type in 6 digits and select flat number from drop down. I’ve even seen buildings where different floors have diff codes
There are two number 1s in my postcode
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#208Some brilliant examples of postal detective work in Ireland documented here https://www.quora.com/Can-you-send-mail-in-Ireland-with-the-... . eg Petra Kindler and Donal Moore Unfortunately I forgot the street name but it's near a street named *Cul de Sac* The beautiful city of Waterford, well known for its kindly postmen IRELAND
I correctly received a similarly-addressed letter, and was fairly impressed that it made its way to me.
Since Ireland got what we're calling eircodes (post codes for Ireland) we can now have a house level address in 7 chars. So mine is Xxx XXxx I really must try and send myself something with JUST that on the label?! With a wee apology on the back for taking the piss.
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#209It could be quite short: four letters and four digits would give you nearly half a billion possibilities.
Re: What is the minimal possible UK address?
#210A friend of mine dropped out of university and went to live the "ski-bum" lifestyle in France. His mum wasn't happy with this and eventually took to writing letters to him addressed "Joe and his stupid friends, Chamonix". They all arrived without issues. This was in the early 90's. I wonder how effective this would be now with more automated systems in use.