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. 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.

Subdivision

Each postcode area is further divided into post towns and postcode districts.

Scope

The single or pair of letters chosen for postcode areas are generally intended as a mnemonic for the places served. || Code formation || Number of postcode districts within area <!--Does not count non-geographical postcodes, e.g.: SA99 -->

|-

| AB || Aberdeen|| Aberdeen|| 33 (highest number 56)

|-

| AL || St Albans|| St Albans||10

|-

| B || Birmingham|| Birmingham||79 (highest number 98)

|-

| BA || Bath|| Bath||19 (highest number 22)

|-

| BB || Blackburn|| Blackburn||13 (highest number 18)

|-

| BD || Bradford|| Bradford||24

|-

| BH || Bournemouth|| Bournemouth||26 (highest number 31)

|-

| BL || Bolton|| Bolton||10 (highest number 9)

|-

| BN || Brighton|| Brighton|| 30 (highest number 45)

|-

| BR || Bromley|| Bromley||8

|-

| BS || Bristol|| Bristol||37 (highest number 49)

|-

| BT || Belfast|| Belfast||81 (highest number 94)

|-

| CA || Carlisle || Carlisle||28

|-

| CB || Cambridge || Cambridge||16 (highest number 25)

|-

| CF || Cardiff || Cardiff <!-- Note: In Welsh, ff counts as one letter, hence both are highlighted in this instance -->||35 (highest number 83)

|-

| CH || Chester|| Chester||37 (highest number 66)

|-

| CM || Chelmsford || Chelmsford|| 25 (highest number 77)

|-

| CO || Colchester|| Colchester||16

|-

| CR || Croydon|| Croydon|| 9 (highest number 8)

|-

| CT || Canterbury || Canterbury||21

|-

| CV || Coventry|| Coventry||24 (highest number 47)

|-

| CW || Crewe|| Crewe||12

|-

| DA || Dartford|| Dartford||18

|-

| DD || Dundee|| Dundee||11

|-

| DE || Derby || Derby||23 (highest number 75)

|-

| DG || Dumfries|| Newcastle upon Tyne ||61 (highest number 71)

|-

| NG || Nottingham|| Nottingham||29 (highest number 34)

|-

| NN || Northampton|| Northampton||19 (highest number 29)

|-

| NP || Newport|| Newport||18 (highest number 44)

|-

| NR || Norwich|| Norwich||35

|-

| NW || North West London|| North West (London)||11

|-

| OL || Oldham|| Oldham||16

|-

| OX || Oxford|| Oxford||27 (highest number 49)

|-

| PA || Paisley || Paisley||67 (highest number 80)

|-

| PE || Peterborough|| Peterborough||38

|-

| PH || Perth|| Perth||43 (highest number 50)

|-

| PL || Plymouth|| Plymouth||35

|-

| PO || Portsmouth|| Portsmouth||34 (highest number 41)

|-

| PR || Preston|| Preston||11 (highest number 26)

|-

| RG || Reading|| Reading||30 (highest number 45)

|-

| RH || Redhill|| Redhill||20

|-

| RM || Romford|| Romford||20

|-

| S || Sheffield|| Sheffield||45 (highest number 81)

|-

| SA || Swansea|| Swansea||51 (highest number 73)

|-

| SE || South East London|| South East (London)||28

|-

| SG || Stevenage|| Stevenage||19

|-

| SK || Stockport|| Stockport||19 (highest number 23)

|-

| SL || Slough|| Slough||10 (highest number 9)

|-

| SM || Sutton ||7

|-

| SN || Swindon|| Swindon||18 (highest number 26)

|-

| SO || Southampton|| Southampton||23 (highest number 53)

|-

| SP || Salisbury || Salisbury Plain ||11

|-

| SR || Sunderland|| Sunderland||8

|-

| SS || Southend-on-Sea|| Southend-on-Sea||17

|-

| ST || Stoke-on-Trent|| Stoke-on-Trent||21

|-

| SW || South West London|| South West (London)||27 (SW1 is split into eight, -A, -E, -H, -P, -V, -W, -X & -Y; highest number 20)

|-

| SY || Shrewsbury|| Shrewsbury||25

|-

| TA || Taunton|| Taunton||24

|-

| TD || Galashiels||Tweeddale ||15

|-

| TF || Telford|| Telford||13

|-

| TN || Tunbridge Wells

BX

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

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.

XM

XM4 5HQ is a postcode created for letters sent to Santa Claus or Father Christmas (with XM4 5HQ resembling "XMAS").

XX

The non-geographic postcode area XX is used by online retailers for returns by Royal Mail, and was used for COVID-19 test samples.

{| class="wikitable"

! Retailer<br>(or other user) !! XX Postcodes

|-

| Adidas

| XX40 4AA

|-

| Amazon || XX10 1DD (Scottish Distribution Centre)<br>XX10 1ZZ (Yorkshire Distribution Centre)<br>XX30 1FF (South West Distribution Centre)<br>XX40 2PP (National Distribution Centre)<br>XX50 1DD (Scottish Distribution Centre)<br>XX50 9SS (Scottish Distribution Centre)<br>XX60 1XX (Princess Royal Distribution Centre)

|-

| ASOS || XX10 1AA

|-

| Boohoo.com || XX10 1BB

|-

| BT Group || XX10 1BT <br> XX50 5NN (Scottish Distribution Centre)

|-

| John Lewis || XX10 1EE<br>XX40 1EE

|-

| Marks & Spencer || XX10 1SS

|-

| Very || XX20 1DD

|-

| musicMagpie || XX10 1FF<br>XX20 1BF<br>XX20 1FF

|-

| HP / Cycleon Retail Returns || XX40 1EH<br>XX40 2HH (toner cartridge recycling)

|-

| Nike

| XX40 2HH

|-

| Zara || XX40 1EJ

|-

| Mango || XX40 1EN

|-

| Monsoon Accessorize || XX40 1EP

|-

| Boden || XX40 1EG

|-

| H&M || XX40 1HN

|-

| Cainiao (Alibaba Group)

| XX40 1RR

|-

| Oasis || XX40 1YY

|-

| Shein

| XX40 3SS

|-

| Sony / Cycleon returns

| XX40 3WW

|-

| 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

|}

Overseas territories

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:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Territory !! Postcode

|-

| || AI-2640

|-

| Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha:

:

:

:

| <br>ASCN 1ZZ <br>STHL 1ZZ <br>TDCU 1ZZ

|-

| || BBND 1ZZ

|-

| || BIQQ 1ZZ

|-

| || FIQQ 1ZZ

|-

| || GX11 1AA

|-

| || PCRN 1ZZ

|-

| || SIQQ 1ZZ

|-

| || TKCA 1ZZ

|-

|}

Other overseas territories have introduced their own more extensive postcode systems:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! 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.

See also

  • List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom by population
  • List of postcode districts in the United Kingdom
  • Postcodes in the United Kingdom
  • List of Eircode routing areas in Ireland

Notes

References

  • Office for National Statistics – Postal geography
  • OpenStreetMap – Postcode map
  • Postcode lookup information, grid references, maps, constituencies, addresses for all UK Postcodes
  • Strowger net: postcodes of the UK
  • UK Business Lists – Map of UK Postcodes
  • Direct Marketing Lists UK postcode map
  • Business Lists UK postcode map
  • FREE Vector UK Postcode Maps
  • PostcodeArea - Demographics, maps, crime rates, house prices and local information for all UK postcodes
  • Strange Maps – Frank Jacobs – Diagrammatic Map
  • All UK Postcodes Filter By Postcode Area

eo:Poŝtkodoj en Britio