page_title: B postcode area
section_title: Former scheme
hierarchical_section_title: B postcode area / Former scheme
caption_attribution_description: English: Composite image of street name signs on Birdbrook Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, England, showing old "Birmingham 22" (top) and modern "B44" postcodes.
context_page_description: The B postcode area, also known as the Birmingham postcode area, is a group of 79 postcode districts in central England, within 15 post towns and around 41,397 live postcodes. These districts cover the central portion of the West Midlands, plus northeast Worcestershire, west Warwickshire, northwest Warwickshire and part of southeast Staffordshire.
context_section_description: Before the introduction of postcodes in the 1960s, Birmingham along with other major cities were divided into numbered postal districts. With a few exceptions these were directly incorporated into the outcode (the first part of the postcode).
  For example, Great Barr was formerly Birmingham 22 (now B43 and 44) and Smethwick was formerly Smethwick 40 and 41 (now B66 and 67).
caption: Street name signs on Birdbrook Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, showing old "Birmingham 22" (top) and modern "B44" postcodes.
exif: {"Image DateTime": "2007:04:05 17:00:00", "Image Artist": "Andy Mabbett", "Image Copyright": "Andy Mabbett", "Image ExifOffset": "107", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:04:05 17:00:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:04:05 17:00:00"}