List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is divided by Royal Mail into postcode areas. The postcode area is the largest geographical unit used and forms the first characters of the alphanumeric UK postcode.

Subdivision
Each postcode area is divided into post towns and postcode districts. The London post town is instead divided into several postcode areas.HMSO, The Inner London Letter Post, (1980)

Scope
The single or pair of letters chosen for postcode areas are generally a mnemonic for the places served.

United Kingdom postcode areas

Postcode area Postcode area name  Code formation AB  Aberdeen AL  St Albans B  Birmingham  BA  Bath BB  Blackburn BD  Bradford BH  Bournemouth BL  Bolton BN  Brighton BR  Bromley BS  Bristol BT  Belfast CA  Carlisle   CB  Cambridge  CF  Cardiff  CH  Chester CM  Chelmsford  CO  Colchester CR  Croydon CT  Canterbury  CV  Coventry  CW  Crewe DA  Dartford DD  Dundee DE  Derby  DG  Dumfries Dumfries and Galloway DH  Durham  DL  Darlington  DN  Doncaster DT  Dorchester  DY  Dudley  E  East London EC  East Central London EH  Edinburgh EN  Enfield  EX  Exeter  FK  Falkirk FY  Blackpool  The Fylde G  Glasgow GL  Gloucester  GU  Guildford HA  Harrow  HD  Huddersfield  HG  Harrogate HP  Hemel Hempstead  HR  Hereford HS  Outer Hebrides First and last letters of Hebrides HU  Hull HX  Halifax IG  IlfordPossibly Ilford and Chigwell, or Ilford and Barking IP  Ipswich IV  Inverness KA  Kilmarnock KT  Kingston upon Thames KW  Kirkwall  KY  Kirkcaldy L  Liverpool LA  Lancaster LD  Llandrindod Wells LE  Leicester LL  Llandudno LN  Lincoln  LS  Leeds LU  Luton M   Manchester ME  Rochester Medway (now sometimes known as Maidstone) MK  Milton Keynes ML  Motherwell N  North London  NE  Newcastle upon Tyne  NG  Nottingham NN  Northampton NP  Newport NR  Norwich NW  North West London OL  Oldham  OX  Oxford PA  Paisley  PE  Peterborough PH  Perth PL  Plymouth PO  Portsmouth PR  Preston RG  Reading RH  Redhill RM  Romford S   Sheffield  SA  Swansea SE  South East London SG  Stevenage SK  Stockport SL  Slough SM  Sutton  Possibly Sutton and Morden, the two post towns that are within the SM area  SN  Swindon SO  Southampton SP  Salisbury  Salisbury Plain SR  Sunderland SS  Southend-on-Sea ST  Stoke-on-Trent SW  South West London SY  Shrewsbury TA  Taunton TD  Galashiels  Tweeddale TF  Telford TN  Tunbridge Wells TQ  Torquay TR  Truro TS  Cleveland Teesside TW  Twickenham UB  Southall Uxbridge W  West London WA  Warrington WC  Western Central London WD  Watford WF  Wakefield WN  Wigan WR  Worcester WS  Walsall WV  Wolverhampton YO  York ZE  Lerwick Zetland

Crown dependencies
The Crown dependencies (which are not part of the United Kingdom) did not introduce postcodes until later, but use a similar coding scheme. They are separate postal authorities.

Postcode area Postcode area name   GY  Guernsey JE  Jersey IM  Isle of Man

Defunct postcode areas

London NE and S
Glasgow
Glasgow, like London, was divided into compass districts: C, W, NW, N, E, SE, S, SW. When postcodes were introduced, these were mapped into the new G postcode: C1 became G1, W1 became G11, N1 became G21, E1 became G31, S1 became G41, SW1 became G51, and so on. As NW and SE had never been subdivided they became G20 and G40 respectively.

Norwich and Croydon
Norwich and Croydon were used for a postcode experiment in the late 1960s, which was replaced by the current system. The format was of the form NOR or CRO followed by two numbers and a letter, e.g. NOR 07A.

Non-geographic postcodes

GIR
GIR 0AA is a postcode created for Girobank in Bootle.

BF
The BF postcode area was introduced in 2012 to provide optional postcodes for British Forces Post Office addresses, for consistency with the layout of other UK addresses. It uses the national non-geographic post town "BFPO" and, as of 2012, the postcode district "BF1".

BX
The non-geographic postcode area BX has been introduced for addresses which do not include a locality: this allows large organisations flexibility as to where they receive their mail.

Overseas territories
Certain British overseas territories have postcodes:

Postcode  LocationAI-2640  Anguilla"Anguilla Has A Postal Code, AI-2640", The Anguillian, 12 October 2007ASCN 1ZZ STHL 1ZZ TDCU 1ZZ  Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha: Ascension Island Saint Helena Tristan da CunhaFirst postcode for remote UK isle. BBC News. 7 August 2005.BBND 1ZZ  British Indian Ocean TerritoryBIQQ 1ZZ  British Antarctic TerritoryFIQQ 1ZZ  Falkland IslandsGX11 1AA  GibraltarPCRN 1ZZ  Pitcairn IslandsSIQQ 1ZZ  South Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsTKCA 1ZZ  Turks and Caicos IslandsTurks and Caicos Islands . Bureau International UPU.BFPO 57 / BF1 2AT(Akrotiri)  BFPO 58 / BF1 2AU (Dhekelia)Akrotiri and DhekeliaList   BermudaList   Cayman IslandsList  British Virgin IslandsList  Montserrat

These were introduced to prevent mail being sent to the wrong place, e.g., for St Helena to St Helens, MerseysideLandmark birthday for postcode and Ascension Island to Asunción, Paraguay, and many on-line companies will not accept addresses lacking a postcode.  Such mail is treated as international, not inland, so sufficient postage must be used.

Related pages
List of postcode districts in the United Kingdom
Postcodes in the United Kingdom

References

Other websites
Office for National Statistics - Postal geography
OpenStreetMap - Postcode map
UK Postcode Finder 
Strowger net: postcodes of the UK 
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 - 
Area Information  - Wide variety of information for each UK postcodes. Housing information to residential data, crime statistics to sold house prices. 

United Kingdom