London’s postcode system is absolutely brilliant. I’ve lived in four different countries but have never experienced anything that comes close to rivalling London’s postcode system.
The Dutch postcode system is pretty clever too. Just a postcode and a house number is enough to retrieve the entire address. Works nationally. Online address forms often only allow you to type in a postcode and a house number and then the form fills in the rest. As a return address I usually only put postcode hyphen house number on the back of the envelope.
@moladiver6817 that applies to most addresses throughout the UK too. Rarely type out my address, simply a postcode and building number and the rest is automatically filled out
planning a trip to Australia and its a nightmare, have to manually type region and street every time, the stupid thing is they have an area number but its only 4 numbers long, so, you have to type in region and street address. sorta defeats the point of having an area number in the first place.
I didn't realise postcodes were assigned alphabetically, it suddenly makes complete sense. I used to know pretty much every postcode are by heart because I worked as an Addison Lee dispatcher and after a while you just memorise them all.
It's not very common outside of London though. Lots of numbers are skipped, and independent areas within a larger postal district are grouped together numerically. Eg in the NG code, areas in Nottinghamshire are numbered 1-25, but areas in Lincolnshire are 31-34. And in Nottinghamshire these are done geographically from the centre, with every code bordering the number before and after them
Outside of London you're more likely to have 1 at the centre of the postcode region (so SW or N or whatever is the region) then 2 through to some number in a clockwise circle starting north of the centre and working around, and in some cases a second circle outside of that. Most postcodes outside of London and Sheffield were set up in th 1970s and because areas that were rural and sparsely populated back then have since been built on most postcode regions have a few newer codes with non-consecutive numbers that have been patched onto the original system, either by taking territory away from the existing sectors (the first half of a code e.g. SWI is a sector), or by allowing a single geographic sector to have use of two, or even three, different numbers to double, or even triple, the codes available.
@@kevinsmootherThat's how in works in some areas but not all. Manchester post codes for instance do work like that (at least I think they do), but not London post codes.
@thatcammarc pretty much, yes. Single digits are city centre or Salford, then you can follow the rest in a circle around the city. Until you get the outlying boroughs, they get random numbered postcodes as they joined the GM authority, so not necessarily an order to them. For example, M23 Wythenshawe area is next to M33 Sale area or M46 Atherton is next to M29 Worsley
Just for clarification Lewisham is SE13 not SW13. SW13 is Barnes and that's a ball ache away on the south circular. Postcodes are indeed alphabetical however there are variations. E2 to E15 are in order and it starts again at E16 for Canning Town. That used to be in the NE area before it was given to Newcastle. NW starts again at NW9 for Colindale. N starts over at N19 for Archway. SW is a warm up exercise for SE. SW2,4,8 and 9 are all south of the river. SW1,3,5,6,7 & 10 are north. You then start again at SW11 for Battersea and never need to cross a bridge. W has no complications. W2 is Bayswater and W14 is West Kensington. Easy. SE, forget it. They were drunk by this point. There are 28 districts without any semblance of order at all. SE8 is Deptford, SE17 is Elephant & Castle and SE21 is Dulwich.
SE Postcodes are largely in alphabetical order, but the names that they use may not reflect those commonly used today. SE2 (Abbey Wood) to SE18 (Woolwich) run in order - SE17 you mention covers E&C but the post town is Walworth. SE19 - Upper Norwood - appears to be an anomaly, but then you've got SE20 (Anerley, not Penge for the sake of ordering), SE21 (Dulwich), SE22 (East Dulwich), 23 (Forest Hill), 24 (Herne Hill), 25 (S Norwood) 26 (Sydenham) and 27 (W Norwood) completing another alphabetical run. SE28 was given to Thamesmead presumably as it's the newest SE district.
Lewisham is SE13 & Catford is SE6 not 4 which is Brockley & Crofton Park . Another quirky one is that the American embassy and surrounding area is SW11 it used to be SW8 but it changed maybe SW11 is a bit posher . Where that embassy is behind it was the main distribution Center for SW London to Royal Mail sold the land. Regards ex postie & cabbie
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
I was about to say the same. Lewisham is next to Blackheath (SE2) which is deemed quite ‘posh’. Whilst I lived there a new housing development was being built and was marketed as being in Blackheath. Sadly for its residents it has an SE13 postcode!
@@CJT80 sorry to correct you 😆, blackHeath is se3 & Abbey Wood is se2 it’s all in alaphabetical order , I know what you mean . Was you talking about the old ferrier estate in Kidbrooke. That shithole had to be pulled down .
@@Sw1a1aa I doubt they mean the Ferrier as that is/was SE3 and has Blackheath Park Se3 between it and the SE13 postcode. I lived on the Ferrier and what it needed was social investment rather than being knocked down and the land sold to property investors so they can make huge profits.
This makes a surprising amount of sense. I have noticed the codes everywhere in London but never thought I could be bothered to memorize them, since I am there rarely and as a tourist. Most places in the world don't put post codes on road signs, so I didn't even know that is what they are. But if I am anywhere a tourist is likely to go after watching this video, I can orient myself roughly by the first letters on the nearest sign. Nice.
Pre GPS back in the mid 1990s I was a service engineer in the south east of England…mainly PO, RH, BN & TN postcodes…. If I didn’t have a map book of the area I was visiting, I could figure out roughly where I needed to go based on the post code
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
I worked at KEB EC sorting office for over 20 years in the 80’s and 90’s even iv’e learn’t something from this video 👍👍 and lots off ex Postmen became Black cab drivers it was the perfect job to do the Knowledge lot’s off free time because it was a great job back then
This is fascinating! Gonna be nosey at the street signs next time I’m in London! I’m in the Midlands and my mind was blown when a customer on the phones at work explained the postcode compass - he wasn’t keen on visiting a NW postcode from his SE one and explained it to me!
You want to live on a farm in Devon 1 post code covers 4 farms about 15 houses over a 3 miles radius, Amazon can get it right first time, the smart meter fitter took 4times before he gave up and all he had to do was follow the power lines ! LOL
Very interesting video. Often wondered how Blackheath's postcode is SE3 and Lewisham's is SE13 (not SW13 like it says in this video lol) when they are right next to each other. Thanks for making it. (BTW, There's only one L in Fulham 🙂)
Great video, I always found London postcodes a little confusing. This gives people visiting London a good idea on how the postcodes work and the little bit of history was great as well . 👍🏼 This video deserves more views.
Such a fascinating insight into London postcodes. I lived in London for four years and I had no idea how the post code system was constructed or if there was even a system to it but this video is really insightful
In comparison, the American equivalent - the Zip Code - wasn't introduced until 1963, over a hundred years after London! They start low numbers on the east coast and go higher in western states.
As a brit zip codes seem totally infeasible to me. Only 5 digits and no letters mean only 90,000 possible combinations or 90,000 individual codes. For a country with over 300 million people and so much territory. There must be so many addresses per each code and so much sorting each post office has to do even after the zip to get a manageable round for each postman
@@nope2dat Actually, full zip codes are 9 digits, 5 digits outbound like the first half of the UK code and 4 digits inbound like the second half of the UK code. Most people only bother to state the first digits.
One of the most unique Postcodes was a large office block on Bridle Road, Bootle, Liverpool. which was should have been within L30 4YD but as it was part of the General Post Office (when it was built in the 1960's) it got GIR 0AA - home to the Post Office Girobank. Since it was taken over by Alliance & Leicester, and now Santander - it lost its unique postcode and it changed to L30 4GB (as a nod towards its previous incarnation as Girobank).
Welwyn Garden City is divided in the same way as Wembley. We have the East Coast Main Line running through our town, and our postcodes are AL7 (St. Albans) for properties east of the railway, and AL8 for the west side.
Been told that Ilford is 'IG' as it is short for 'Ilford and Gants Hill' - which matches the actual geographical area, so makes sense. I believe the only exception to the 'head office is XX1' rule is in "W" - W2 is Paddington as it was a second 'head office' for the area. Lewisham is SE13, not SW13! I believe at least one area has managed to get a proper postcode change - the Barbican was initially part of EC1 when it was being built, but became EC2Y during the 70s. Allegedly a result of the City of London exerting significant pressure on the Royal Mail to move their 2,000 brand new 'luxury' flats away from the very downmarket (at the time) EC1 postcode. Probably only possible due to EC1 being 'overcrowded' anyway though.
I've researched this...apparently the G comes from the last letter of BarkinG. Not sure why. Apparrently IL was avoided as it may be written too closely resembling LL (Llandudno) or L1 (central Liverpool)...
Doesn't IG cover both Ilford and Barking? Also Ilford used to be part of Barking back in the day. Hence Barkingside, actually once being part of Barking.
@@robertyoung9611 Yes, but an interesting way of incorporating Barking into the code..maybe IB would have made more sense?? (I don't know if IB is the code for another area already....
It is interesting how very different post code systems have turned out in different countries. Another example: the Swiss system. They somehow managed to cram multiple things into it. First, you can easily calculate the difference between two four-digit postcodes due to how they are assigned. Then, the way they work is that the first digit designates the greater region, the second one the area, the third one the railway line used for delivery, and the fourth one the location. There are two more internal digits used to designate the delivery route.
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
This is the first video I watched of yours and found it very interesting. Proceeded to binge watch and now subscribed because of your insights - thanks for sharing what you do!
Great video. I live in Bracknell and found the Windsor & Maidenhead (Ascot) part hilarious, because they actually hate the SL postcode soooo much. Slough is horrid crack central and Ascot Windsor and Maidenhead are very affluent.
Yes indeed - I used to live in Windsor in the late 1990s. I also learned that moving into a newly built block of flats that doesn’t have an allocated postcode is a headache, as the postcode is used for things like finding a doctor or theatre bookings.
@@snich63 Yeh, RM are quite slow in assigning postcodes to new builds. I used to do credit checks in the 2000s and the majority of new build residents would fail, as the credit agencies wouldn't have been notified of the new postcode for the verification part.
To the chap in Ilford who has tried to get it included in the London postcode areas...keep pushing. The snobby residents of the Wirral on Merseyside campaigned to have their postcode changed to CH (Chester) from L (Liverpool) in 1999...there, they simply changed the first letters so that the number on the stem corresponds to the old Liverpool postcode (eg Prenton changed from L43 to CH43). Since 1999, the economy of Liverpool has surged whereas the Wirral's fortunes have lagged. They need to refer to Wirral now as part of the Liverpool city region to capitalise on the connections to Liverpool....should've kept the L !!
this was really interesting! I'm not from London (or the UK for that matter), but I've been to London multiple times and absolutely love exploring the city. I love your other videos to see some cool stuff about the city and now i finally know what the postcode stuff is all about. Thanks for the great work both of yous :)
I always find it strange that Brent, as county Postcodes in London and out of London. Willesden - NW10, Wembley - HA9, HA0. Wish Wembley was given an NW postcode.
The reason for Ilford being IG we were told when we were learning to code(which is when we used to type the postcode of letters infront of us on a small conveyor belt.) was that it was from an old name for Ilford. It was 1983 so my memory is telling me it was Iglesham. However I can't find any reference to this. My wife thinx it may have been Ingatestone. I think that's somewhere else tho.
In case anyone else is as confused as I was by why it isn't 'IB', according to Wikipedia they decided to use the last letter of Barking, rather than the first! 😁
Not the full code just like se5 or sw6 . As a taxi driver you have a matter of seconds to start the journey. You won’t see many looking up an a to z or google maps . That map of London is implanted in yer head . You start off going to the correct direction and start filtering out the best route . The killer one is a customer going on a journey across the whole of London and your 1 road away and they say it’s the next left / right driver . Do you think I got all the way here by luck. 😂😂😂
@@Sw1a1aa I want to assume they are just trying to be helpful by giving you the fine tuning at the very end of the journey, and that they aren't actually thinking that you didn't have any idea where to go the rest of the time. I'm not in London mysefl but nonetheless my point here still stands if I say that most (but not all) delivery drivers and tax drivers can easily find my street, but only a suprisingly small percentage can find my exact apartment block (out of a choice of 12 in the street), and even less can see where the slightly concealed front door to the block is to know that that would be a good place to actually come to stop and let me out, so I'd definitely think I was helping my taxi driver by guiding them once we could see my street.
In Birmingham, you can often tell what the area is like just by the postcode. B9 is a pretty harmless all round, while a defeatist attitude prevails in B10. B3 doesn't like to conform, while B4 used to be smart, but it's looking a bit dated now.
That was fascinating! Thanks for sharing. It's interesting because I read that in other parts of UK, the postal codes radiate outwards, Suffolk for example. Ilford is IG because, if I'm not mistaken, it originally was the code for the "Ilford Grounds" area, back in the 1800s.
I know in Durham the way it seems to work is the county is divided into regions beginning in the city at DH1 going all the way to DH9 on the very outskirts. There are some DL postcodes which you tend to find quite close to Darlington (the two county’s are related to each other as Darlington was struggling many years ago, and is why they have Durham & Darlington fire rescue and not separate and within democracy it tends to be treated as a borough of Durham rather than its own county rlly). The second part of postcodes tends to be more specific to the pocket of land assigned the postcode, first number tends to be a rough area, a couple of small villages for example, then the last two letters tends to be in alphabetical order from what I can gather through informal observation
Perhaps you could do a similar video on London house numbers. There is a methodology used, and knowing about it can help a person find at which part of a street a house is located.
Was told once you could travel from any part of England to London by using door numbers if you was sat travelling from Sheffield to London If you followed the highest to lowest you’d be travelling in the direction of London , and that would be from anywhere . This was told to me years ago . Not sure if it’s true but would be interesting if it was .
I don't think there is a uniform rule. Where I live now, odds and evens are on opposing sides of the road, but where I grew up one side would e.g have 1-50 and the other side 51-100. The only thing that I could see as a pattern is that number 1s are usually the closest to the main thoroughfare.
@@Sw1a1aa It used to be the case that the lowest house number was closest to the sorting office. So in theory, if you were ever lost in any town, you could head in the direction of the lowest number to reach the sorting office, which years ago were often close to the town centre. Today, this is unlikely to be the case.
The beginning of your post code SW,NE etc gives you s tough idea of what part of London you need to get to the number narrows it down further the rest narrows it down to a few streets I can understand the confusion I live in SW8 UP the road are Sw4 and SW2 Yet SW6 is in Chelsea North of the river because the Thames doesn't run in a straight line from west to east separating North and South 😅
Great video, very interesting. Would you ever be up for doing a video with me for my channel all about how wheelchairs users get on/ off and use London taxis? I know a lot of wheelchair users, especially those visiting, are so unsure of what to expect, they don’t use them. My channel (not this one, this my personal one) aims to show other wheelies how accessible places are and what to expect. Would help a lot of people out 😊
Clockwise radially, with London as the hub, A1+++ to the North East; A2++ to the East; A3+++ to the South and sw; A4 +++ to the West and Wales; A5 +++ to North Wales and the Midlands; A6 to the North West. A7, A8, A9 over the Border in Scotland, radiating from Edinburgh in similar system. Many developments of the roads have made a hash of the original theme.
Thanks for a great video as usual! Why do SE postcodes start again alphabetically from SE18 (Woolwich) to SE19 (Crystal Palace) to SE20 (Penge), then alphabetic again? Is there some historic inner/outer London thing going on?
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
People on the Wirral peninsula didn’t like having Liverpool L codes, so they got them changed to Chester CH codes. Also Southport is in the Preston PR area. Liverpool addresses tend to get higher insurance quotes!
Here in Glos we don't have GL21 to GL49. It starts again with Cheltenham and GL50. Love UK postcodes, not many countries in the world have a code specific to a small group of buildings (or even individual buildings)
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
Once it was released and we got the replies, we thought about editing it out, but left it in. Generates interest! I saw a draft of the video and missed it and the Brockley/Catford one, kicking myself now😂
I think newspapers and other places like banks and driving licence headquarters and other places get unique post codes because they get so many letters sent to them.
A bit of trivia - Croydon (CR0) is the only postcode area that starts with 0 rather than 1. One thing though - North End in Central Croydon is CR9, while surrounding is CR0. I'd love to know why that is!
BR postcodes (among others) are all part of London (since 1965) but since they are not SE, things like Amazon Fresh or “London” deliveries won’t work because “it’s Kent”.
Lewisham is SE13 Not SW13. Rupert Murdoch's News International office at Pennington St., Wapping is E98. The News International building at London Bridge is SE1.
What I don't get is, when London runs out of codes, why didn't they assign another number to the outward code? I know Southampton's SO1 ran out and got reassigned SO14 and SO15. But London's gone for EC1A or whatever. I've seen on Wikipedia that EC has not run out of numbers (like, at all)...
From working in the city, the extra letters are usually a subdivision. EC2M (London Wall) EC2Y (Fleet Street). Both _kinda_ fairly close, but the amount of addresses in the area probably cut up EC2 a long time ago.
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London’s postcode system is absolutely brilliant. I’ve lived in four different countries but have never experienced anything that comes close to rivalling London’s postcode system.
The Dutch postcode system is pretty clever too. Just a postcode and a house number is enough to retrieve the entire address. Works nationally. Online address forms often only allow you to type in a postcode and a house number and then the form fills in the rest. As a return address I usually only put postcode hyphen house number on the back of the envelope.
@moladiver6817 that applies to most addresses throughout the UK too. Rarely type out my address, simply a postcode and building number and the rest is automatically filled out
planning a trip to Australia and its a nightmare, have to manually type region and street every time, the stupid thing is they have an area number but its only 4 numbers long, so, you have to type in region and street address. sorta defeats the point of having an area number in the first place.
I didn't realise postcodes were assigned alphabetically, it suddenly makes complete sense. I used to know pretty much every postcode are by heart because I worked as an Addison Lee dispatcher and after a while you just memorise them all.
I thought it was distance from Central London lol
It's not very common outside of London though. Lots of numbers are skipped, and independent areas within a larger postal district are grouped together numerically. Eg in the NG code, areas in Nottinghamshire are numbered 1-25, but areas in Lincolnshire are 31-34. And in Nottinghamshire these are done geographically from the centre, with every code bordering the number before and after them
Outside of London you're more likely to have 1 at the centre of the postcode region (so SW or N or whatever is the region) then 2 through to some number in a clockwise circle starting north of the centre and working around, and in some cases a second circle outside of that. Most postcodes outside of London and Sheffield were set up in th 1970s and because areas that were rural and sparsely populated back then have since been built on most postcode regions have a few newer codes with non-consecutive numbers that have been patched onto the original system, either by taking territory away from the existing sectors (the first half of a code e.g. SWI is a sector), or by allowing a single geographic sector to have use of two, or even three, different numbers to double, or even triple, the codes available.
@@kevinsmootherThat's how in works in some areas but not all. Manchester post codes for instance do work like that (at least I think they do), but not London post codes.
@thatcammarc pretty much, yes. Single digits are city centre or Salford, then you can follow the rest in a circle around the city. Until you get the outlying boroughs, they get random numbered postcodes as they joined the GM authority, so not necessarily an order to them. For example, M23 Wythenshawe area is next to M33 Sale area or M46 Atherton is next to M29 Worsley
londoner for 26 years and always had stacks of questions about postcodes stored in my brain, all now answered! fantastic as always tom!
Ur not a real Londoner mate
That fish & chip shop in Newington Green at 2:20 was bought by my grandad after WW2. My mother and Aunt along with my grandparents lived above it.
It’s still not bad, nice chips that taste like chip shop chips used to 👍🏼
Just for clarification Lewisham is SE13 not SW13. SW13 is Barnes and that's a ball ache away on the south circular. Postcodes are indeed alphabetical however there are variations. E2 to E15 are in order and it starts again at E16 for Canning Town. That used to be in the NE area before it was given to Newcastle. NW starts again at NW9 for Colindale. N starts over at N19 for Archway. SW is a warm up exercise for SE. SW2,4,8 and 9 are all south of the river. SW1,3,5,6,7 & 10 are north. You then start again at SW11 for Battersea and never need to cross a bridge. W has no complications. W2 is Bayswater and W14 is West Kensington. Easy. SE, forget it. They were drunk by this point. There are 28 districts without any semblance of order at all. SE8 is Deptford, SE17 is Elephant & Castle and SE21 is Dulwich.
SE Postcodes are largely in alphabetical order, but the names that they use may not reflect those commonly used today. SE2 (Abbey Wood) to SE18 (Woolwich) run in order - SE17 you mention covers E&C but the post town is Walworth. SE19 - Upper Norwood - appears to be an anomaly, but then you've got SE20 (Anerley, not Penge for the sake of ordering), SE21 (Dulwich), SE22 (East Dulwich), 23 (Forest Hill), 24 (Herne Hill), 25 (S Norwood) 26 (Sydenham) and 27 (W Norwood) completing another alphabetical run. SE28 was given to Thamesmead presumably as it's the newest SE district.
Lived in Lewisham for 5 years and can definitely vouch that it is indeed SE13 😂
Dave seems like a lovely guy and incredibly knowledgeable.
Lewisham is SE13 & Catford is SE6 not 4 which is Brockley & Crofton Park . Another quirky one is that the American embassy and surrounding area is SW11 it used to be SW8 but it changed maybe SW11 is a bit posher . Where that embassy is behind it was the main distribution Center for SW London to Royal Mail sold the land. Regards ex postie & cabbie
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
I was about to say the same. Lewisham is next to Blackheath (SE2) which is deemed quite ‘posh’. Whilst I lived there a new housing development was being built and was marketed as being in Blackheath. Sadly for its residents it has an SE13 postcode!
@@CJT80 sorry to correct you 😆, blackHeath is se3 & Abbey Wood is se2 it’s all in alaphabetical order , I know what you mean . Was you talking about the old ferrier estate in Kidbrooke. That shithole had to be pulled down .
Him saying SW13 for Lewisham made me come here 😂. I lived in Brockley and knew Lewisham was an SE postcode.. no wonder my mail keeps going missing 😂😂
@@Sw1a1aa I doubt they mean the Ferrier as that is/was SE3 and has Blackheath Park Se3 between it and the SE13 postcode. I lived on the Ferrier and what it needed was social investment rather than being knocked down and the land sold to property investors so they can make huge profits.
i was an N5 boy growing up! lovely to see a reminder. lovely work Tom. greetings from Barbados
This makes a surprising amount of sense. I have noticed the codes everywhere in London but never thought I could be bothered to memorize them, since I am there rarely and as a tourist. Most places in the world don't put post codes on road signs, so I didn't even know that is what they are. But if I am anywhere a tourist is likely to go after watching this video, I can orient myself roughly by the first letters on the nearest sign. Nice.
"Most places in the world don't put post codes on road signs"
Well, now you mention it… Great point!
Really enjoyed that, I am a Londoner of 57 years and that was all news to me.
Pre GPS back in the mid 1990s I was a service engineer in the south east of England…mainly PO, RH, BN & TN postcodes…. If I didn’t have a map book of the area I was visiting, I could figure out roughly where I needed to go based on the post code
Surprised you guys missed this SW13 is Barnes, Lewisham is SE13
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
@@davidcunnington8316 Good recovery, any slagging off of Lewisham could have let to civil war
@@davidcunnington8316 Great interviewee; I've subbed in case one day you do any 'Tales from a Retired Postman' videos 😆
I worked at KEB EC sorting office for over 20 years in the 80’s and 90’s even iv’e learn’t something from this video 👍👍 and lots off ex Postmen became Black cab drivers it was the perfect job to do the Knowledge lot’s off free time because it was a great job back then
Those early, so-called postcodes are actually postal districts. Postcode proper introduced in about the late 1960s early 1970s
This is fascinating! Gonna be nosey at the street signs next time I’m in London!
I’m in the Midlands and my mind was blown when a customer on the phones at work explained the postcode compass - he wasn’t keen on visiting a NW postcode from his SE one and explained it to me!
You want to live on a farm in Devon 1 post code covers 4 farms about 15 houses over a 3 miles radius, Amazon can get it right first time, the smart meter fitter took 4times before he gave up and all he had to do was follow the power lines ! LOL
Most Amazon drivers struggle to find my house - every single DPD driver has got it right first time. Pay peanuts and get monkeys.
That was magnificent! Postie to cabbie seems a natural career progression.
I went in the opposite direction... cabbie to postie!
When the Naval and Military Club HQ was in Piccadilly, its postcode was W1N 0ES, which its members found highly amusing.
how was it amusing
Fascinated by postcodes. Simple but so effective. I grew up in Cumbria but we still used the old LA Lancashire postcodes from pre-1974 times!
LA = Lancaster
I spend three months a year in London and have never been able to get my head around Postcodes until this video.
Very interesting video. Often wondered how Blackheath's postcode is SE3 and Lewisham's is SE13 (not SW13 like it says in this video lol) when they are right next to each other. Thanks for making it. (BTW, There's only one L in Fulham 🙂)
Great video, I always found London postcodes a little confusing. This gives people visiting London a good idea on how the postcodes work and the little bit of history was great as well . 👍🏼 This video deserves more views.
Such a fascinating insight into London postcodes. I lived in London for four years and I had no idea how the post code system was constructed or if there was even a system to it but this video is really insightful
In comparison, the American equivalent - the Zip Code - wasn't introduced until 1963, over a hundred years after London! They start low numbers on the east coast and go higher in western states.
As a brit zip codes seem totally infeasible to me. Only 5 digits and no letters mean only 90,000 possible combinations or 90,000 individual codes. For a country with over 300 million people and so much territory. There must be so many addresses per each code and so much sorting each post office has to do even after the zip to get a manageable round for each postman
@@nope2dat Zip codes cover a much larger area. There are only 41,704 ZIP Codes in the US, so pleanty more to go around.
@@nope2dat Actually, full zip codes are 9 digits, 5 digits outbound like the first half of the UK code and 4 digits inbound like the second half of the UK code. Most people only bother to state the first digits.
Dave Cunnington.
He da man.
One of the most unique Postcodes was a large office block on Bridle Road, Bootle, Liverpool. which was should have been within L30 4YD but as it was part of the General Post Office (when it was built in the 1960's) it got GIR 0AA - home to the Post Office Girobank. Since it was taken over by Alliance & Leicester, and now Santander - it lost its unique postcode and it changed to L30 4GB (as a nod towards its previous incarnation as Girobank).
Great editing in this video
Thanks for this I really enjoyed this! The guy you had on was brilliant can you thank him for all his knowledgeable information.
Thanks! I want to tap into more wealth of knowledge from cabbies! We all have our unique experiences we bring to the job!
N4 Is in the Boroughs of Haringey Hackney and Islington
Welwyn Garden City is divided in the same way as Wembley. We have the East Coast Main Line running through our town, and our postcodes are AL7 (St. Albans) for properties east of the railway, and AL8 for the west side.
I work in the news uk building. It’s an SE1 postcode. Unless RM have dual postcodes for it and accept both.
Tom your videos are so interesting I don’t even skip the promos 😅
ALPHABETICAL assignments was the key I could never decode on my own. GREAT VIDEO! thanks for E20! MAKES SENSE
Been told that Ilford is 'IG' as it is short for 'Ilford and Gants Hill' - which matches the actual geographical area, so makes sense.
I believe the only exception to the 'head office is XX1' rule is in "W" - W2 is Paddington as it was a second 'head office' for the area.
Lewisham is SE13, not SW13!
I believe at least one area has managed to get a proper postcode change - the Barbican was initially part of EC1 when it was being built, but became EC2Y during the 70s. Allegedly a result of the City of London exerting significant pressure on the Royal Mail to move their 2,000 brand new 'luxury' flats away from the very downmarket (at the time) EC1 postcode. Probably only possible due to EC1 being 'overcrowded' anyway though.
I've researched this...apparently the G comes from the last letter of BarkinG. Not sure why. Apparrently IL was avoided as it may be written too closely resembling LL (Llandudno) or L1 (central Liverpool)...
W1 today is handled by a different mailcentre to all the other W codes if I remember rightly.
Doesn't IG cover both Ilford and Barking? Also Ilford used to be part of Barking back in the day. Hence Barkingside, actually once being part of Barking.
@@robertyoung9611 Yes, but an interesting way of incorporating Barking into the code..maybe IB would have made more sense?? (I don't know if IB is the code for another area already....
IB would indeed make more sense, I can't think of IB being used for anything else.
Lewisham has SE postcodes with a part bordering on Bromley which has a BR postcode.
I love how you’re just driving in opposite directions on Mare Street every time you ask a question for the camera
Downing Street mail is not actually delivered to Downing Street - for security reasons. It is handled centrally via mailing house
Thanks. Thought I’d use it as an example as everyone has heard of it
More complex and interesting than I imagined. Nice one!
It is interesting how very different post code systems have turned out in different countries.
Another example: the Swiss system. They somehow managed to cram multiple things into it. First, you can easily calculate the difference between two four-digit postcodes due to how they are assigned. Then, the way they work is that the first digit designates the greater region, the second one the area, the third one the railway line used for delivery, and the fourth one the location. There are two more internal digits used to designate the delivery route.
Lil faux pas with Lewisham, its definitely SE13 not SW13 ;) great vid tho
🤪
SW13 is Barnes
I knew it was SE, meant to say SE and it came out as S!
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
I used to live in Lee, SE12 so knew Lewisham was wrong straight away.
Sewardstone is E4 post but it is in Essex, the only place as such in London
Yep the only Settlement outside London with a London postcode
It was in London once, but boundaries change. Sensibly, Royal Mail decided to keep its postcodes fixed wherever possible - they almost never change.
TK 501 was my post number.
Still have a fascination on posy codes.
Fascinating
I work In London frequently and often wondered why there seemed to be no logic to the numbering after the main letters 😊
Lovely stuff as always Tom!
Fascinating guy. Just shows that cabbies have had so many previous occupations which is what makes using a London taxi so interesting.
Mad that he was a global director then went into cabbing.
Great video. This man clearly knows his stuff (except from the very minor SW13/SE13 Lewisham mix-up at the end!)
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
@@davidcunnington8316 no worries mate!
Lewisham is SE13. He just said when he was talking about the route from the blue books that SW13 is in Castelnau, Barns 😅.
So sorry, I knew it but didn’t concentrate
I think in the pop quiz we were so concentrated on numbers 🤪
@@TomtheTaxiDriver Totally agree, Tom! It was a great video anyway. He has an amazing amount of knowledge.
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
He was a great guest!
Hats off. Walking code book bloke wees a bit when that one pub quiz questions comes up
This is the first video I watched of yours and found it very interesting. Proceeded to binge watch and now subscribed because of your insights - thanks for sharing what you do!
What a knowledgeable bloke! Feel he'd be great to have on your team in a pub quiz
Great video. I live in Bracknell and found the Windsor & Maidenhead (Ascot) part hilarious, because they actually hate the SL postcode soooo much. Slough is horrid crack central and Ascot Windsor and Maidenhead are very affluent.
Yes indeed - I used to live in Windsor in the late 1990s. I also learned that moving into a newly built block of flats that doesn’t have an allocated postcode is a headache, as the postcode is used for things like finding a doctor or theatre bookings.
@@snich63 Yeh, RM are quite slow in assigning postcodes to new builds. I used to do credit checks in the 2000s and the majority of new build residents would fail, as the credit agencies wouldn't have been notified of the new postcode for the verification part.
Ah, that explains why N5 is slap-bang next to N7. Alphabetically: Highbury → Highgate → Holloway.
Brilliant video , really enjoyed Tom
A brilliant video once again Tom!
To the chap in Ilford who has tried to get it included in the London postcode areas...keep pushing. The snobby residents of the Wirral on Merseyside campaigned to have their postcode changed to CH (Chester) from L (Liverpool) in 1999...there, they simply changed the first letters so that the number on the stem corresponds to the old Liverpool postcode (eg Prenton changed from L43 to CH43). Since 1999, the economy of Liverpool has surged whereas the Wirral's fortunes have lagged. They need to refer to Wirral now as part of the Liverpool city region to capitalise on the connections to Liverpool....should've kept the L !!
Having lived with people from Bromborough and New Brighton at uni, I find that hilarous
@@Zoltanlouis2009 Apologies...then it looks as though I've been pushing an urban myth...
Ilford postcode is IG because IL could be misread as I1 or LL, the G is the final letter of adjacent postal area Barking.
Nice copy n' paste from Wikipedia there. They couldn't use IB either as it would should like IP on the phone and stuff ends up in Ipswich.
Nonsense, it was Ilford General
It's Ilford and Gants Hill
this was really interesting! I'm not from London (or the UK for that matter), but I've been to London multiple times and absolutely love exploring the city. I love your other videos to see some cool stuff about the city and now i finally know what the postcode stuff is all about. Thanks for the great work both of yous :)
Greatest city on the planet.
Fantastic video Tom. Stay well and be lucky 😉
Love this guy so interesting to listen to
I always find it strange that Brent, as county Postcodes in London and out of London. Willesden - NW10, Wembley - HA9, HA0. Wish Wembley was given an NW postcode.
Wembley was not in London when the postal districts were originally created in the middle of the 19th century.
13 years living in london, now i know, thank you sir.
Working with UK's postcodes for last couple of years, nice to fill in the gaps. Great video!
The reason for Ilford being IG we were told when we were learning to code(which is when we used to type the postcode of letters infront of us on a small conveyor belt.) was that it was from an old name for Ilford. It was 1983 so my memory is telling me it was Iglesham. However I can't find any reference to this. My wife thinx it may have been Ingatestone. I think that's somewhere else tho.
Why were you filming outside that working cab shelter in Kensington Park Road? Used to get a good brekky in there!
IG is IG because IL could be mistaken for LL or L1. G is used because it's adjacent town is Barking
In case anyone else is as confused as I was by why it isn't 'IB', according to Wikipedia they decided to use the last letter of Barking, rather than the first! 😁
Imagine telling a taxi driver giving a postcode and they knew exactly where to go.
They wouldn't.
Not the full code just like se5 or sw6 . As a taxi driver you have a matter of seconds to start the journey. You won’t see many looking up an a to z or google maps . That map of London is implanted in yer head . You start off going to the correct direction and start filtering out the best route . The killer one is a customer going on a journey across the whole of London and your 1 road away and they say it’s the next left / right driver . Do you think I got all the way here by luck. 😂😂😂
That's exactly what happened today.
@@Sw1a1aa I want to assume they are just trying to be helpful by giving you the fine tuning at the very end of the journey, and that they aren't actually thinking that you didn't have any idea where to go the rest of the time. I'm not in London mysefl but nonetheless my point here still stands if I say that most (but not all) delivery drivers and tax drivers can easily find my street, but only a suprisingly small percentage can find my exact apartment block (out of a choice of 12 in the street), and even less can see where the slightly concealed front door to the block is to know that that would be a good place to actually come to stop and let me out, so I'd definitely think I was helping my taxi driver by guiding them once we could see my street.
Do you get to learn places by postcodes or street names ?
In Birmingham, you can often tell what the area is like just by the postcode. B9 is a pretty harmless all round, while a defeatist attitude prevails in B10. B3 doesn't like to conform, while B4 used to be smart, but it's looking a bit dated now.
Great! Brilliant! I had a pretty good idea but not that the numbers were alphabetically.
That was fascinating! Thanks for sharing. It's interesting because I read that in other parts of UK, the postal codes radiate outwards, Suffolk for example.
Ilford is IG because, if I'm not mistaken, it originally was the code for the "Ilford Grounds" area, back in the 1800s.
Excellent as usual Tom
Absolutely fascinating stuff, Tom!
I know in Durham the way it seems to work is the county is divided into regions beginning in the city at DH1 going all the way to DH9 on the very outskirts. There are some DL postcodes which you tend to find quite close to Darlington (the two county’s are related to each other as Darlington was struggling many years ago, and is why they have Durham & Darlington fire rescue and not separate and within democracy it tends to be treated as a borough of Durham rather than its own county rlly).
The second part of postcodes tends to be more specific to the pocket of land assigned the postcode, first number tends to be a rough area, a couple of small villages for example, then the last two letters tends to be in alphabetical order from what I can gather through informal observation
Perhaps you could do a similar video on London house numbers. There is a methodology used, and knowing about it can help a person find at which part of a street a house is located.
Was told once you could travel from any part of England to London by using door numbers if you was sat travelling from Sheffield to London If you followed the highest to lowest you’d be travelling in the direction of London , and that would be from anywhere . This was told to me years ago . Not sure if it’s true but would be interesting if it was .
I don't think there is a uniform rule. Where I live now, odds and evens are on opposing sides of the road, but where I grew up one side would e.g have 1-50 and the other side 51-100. The only thing that I could see as a pattern is that number 1s are usually the closest to the main thoroughfare.
@@Sw1a1aa It used to be the case that the lowest house number was closest to the sorting office. So in theory, if you were ever lost in any town, you could head in the direction of the lowest number to reach the sorting office, which years ago were often close to the town centre. Today, this is unlikely to be the case.
It's weird though. i live in Uxbridge town centre which should be UB1 you should think but it is UB8. Really interesting video Tom.
UB1 is Southall, which is the location of the main post office for the district - as explained in the video.
The beginning of your post code SW,NE etc gives you s tough idea of what part of London you need to get to the number narrows it down further the rest narrows it down to a few streets I can understand the confusion I live in SW8 UP the road are Sw4 and SW2 Yet SW6 is in Chelsea North of the river because the Thames doesn't run in a straight line from west to east separating North and South 😅
Great video, really informative.
This was great, thanks!
Great video, very interesting.
Would you ever be up for doing a video with me for my channel all about how wheelchairs users get on/ off and use London taxis? I know a lot of wheelchair users, especially those visiting, are so unsure of what to expect, they don’t use them. My channel (not this one, this my personal one) aims to show other wheelies how accessible places are and what to expect. Would help a lot of people out 😊
Sounds like it would make a interesting video ! I hope he see's it
As a follow on to this, it'd be good if you could do a video at some point explaining the British road numbering system 🙂
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain_road_numbering_scheme
Clockwise radially, with London as the hub, A1+++ to the North East; A2++ to the East; A3+++ to the South and sw; A4 +++ to the West and Wales; A5 +++ to North Wales and the Midlands; A6 to the North West. A7, A8, A9 over the Border in Scotland, radiating from Edinburgh in similar system.
Many developments of the roads have made a hash of the original theme.
@@fatladattheback8642motorways did follow a similar pattern to start with, but they tended to go nuts later in their construction.
@@fatladattheback8642motorways did follow a similar pattern to start with, but they tended to go nuts later in their construction.
Thanks for a great video as usual! Why do SE postcodes start again alphabetically from SE18 (Woolwich) to SE19 (Crystal Palace) to SE20 (Penge), then alphabetic again? Is there some historic inner/outer London thing going on?
Love this! I’ve often wondered about London post codes.
Fascinating! Dave shared great insights. I couldn’t not be reminded of the roadie in Wayne’s World 2 however!
Not me yelling at the telly saying Lewisham is not SW13!!!
Did a stint as a postie in the late 80s, but couldn’t hack it after 6mths!
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
What an absolutely lovely guy, great video
Always cracked me up that the American Embassy is SW11 7US. 😂
The US government gave Royal Mail a large amount of money to make that so.
Wow very interesting Sir great video as always
On the subject of changing postcodes there are many people in Burnley who don`t like the fact their postcode is BB , Blackburn
People on the Wirral peninsula didn’t like having Liverpool L codes, so they got them changed to Chester CH codes. Also Southport is in the Preston PR area. Liverpool addresses tend to get higher insurance quotes!
I think a lot of the residents of Southport would like to move back to Lancashire permanently
Here in Glos we don't have GL21 to GL49. It starts again with Cheltenham and GL50. Love UK postcodes, not many countries in the world have a code specific to a small group of buildings (or even individual buildings)
I’m from Lewisham and Dave saying its postcode is SW13 hurt me 🤣
So sorry, I knew it but didn’t concentrate
So sorry, I knew Lewisham is SE13, I meant to say SE13 and my brain didn’t tell my mouth that so I said SW13, then said it again! I like Lewisham and spent days cycling every road of it whilst on the Knowledge. Always happy to take a far there in the cab.
@@davidcunnington8316 It's fine, no need to apologise! These things happen - Tom didn't do you any favours by leaving it in the video lol
Once it was released and we got the replies, we thought about editing it out, but left it in. Generates interest! I saw a draft of the video and missed it and the Brockley/Catford one, kicking myself now😂
Great video idea mate!
I think newspapers and other places like banks and driving licence headquarters and other places get unique post codes because they get so many letters sent to them.
Nice one! Dave was my boss in Royal Mail 👍
A bit of trivia - Croydon (CR0) is the only postcode area that starts with 0 rather than 1.
One thing though - North End in Central Croydon is CR9, while surrounding is CR0. I'd love to know why that is!
what about BL0 and HA0 to name two?
@@tasty_fish I guess that was bs then hahaha
IIRC, CR0 was the test area for rolling out nationwide postcodes. I guess they wanted it to look like CR0-ydon.
BR postcodes (among others) are all part of London (since 1965) but since they are not SE, things like Amazon Fresh or “London” deliveries won’t work because “it’s Kent”.
Brilliant this guy is like a human satnav !
Lewisham is SE13 Not SW13. Rupert Murdoch's News International office at Pennington St., Wapping is E98. The News International building at London Bridge is SE1.
Great video, really interesting. Dave was excellent!
What I don't get is, when London runs out of codes, why didn't they assign another number to the outward code? I know Southampton's SO1 ran out and got reassigned SO14 and SO15. But London's gone for EC1A or whatever. I've seen on Wikipedia that EC has not run out of numbers (like, at all)...
From working in the city, the extra letters are usually a subdivision. EC2M (London Wall) EC2Y (Fleet Street). Both _kinda_ fairly close, but the amount of addresses in the area probably cut up EC2 a long time ago.
Ooh, another good example is SW1 - theres also SW1V for the area around Victoria, and SW1P is the Pimlico area.