# United Kingdom Address Standard ## Overview A British address is built for the postman, not for the map. It is addressed by a post town and a postcode, and the postcode is precise enough to narrow the address to a handful of doors. The county, which most business records still carry, plays no part in delivery. A building can be addressed by its name alone, without a number, and the post town on the envelope is often not the place the building stands in. This article describes the United Kingdom address format, how CDQ represents it in the CDQ address model, how the nations, council areas and postcodes are handled, and which reference data CDQ maintains. It is the reference for anyone mapping British business partner data into CDQ, or consuming curated British addresses from CDQ. **In this article, you will understand:** - How a British address is structured, and which elements are needed to deliver mail - Why the county is not part of the postal address, and which county CDQ delivers - What the postcode encodes, and how it is written - Where Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man fit - How each element maps to a concept in the CDQ address model, and which SAP field it reaches - Which reference data CDQ maintains for the United Kingdom, and where it is incomplete Available in: * [CDQ Wiki: business partner metadata for the United Kingdom](https://meta.cdq.com/DataModel:CDQ/Business_Partner/Address/Country/GB): browse the published British metadata ## How a United Kingdom address is built The shape is familiar: a number, a street, a town and a post code. What is specific to the United Kingdom is which of these carry the address, and which only look as if they do. | Specific to the United Kingdom | Why it matters | | --- | --- | | The country code is `GB`, not `UK` | `GB` is the ISO 3166-1 code for the whole United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. `UK` is only reserved, and a system that validates against ISO rejects it | | The post town and the postcode carry the address | Royal Mail sorts on these two. The post town is written in capitals on its own line, and the postcode below it | | The county is not postal | it is not needed to deliver, and the county a record carries is often a former postal or ceremonial county that is no longer an administrative area | | A building can be addressed by name alone | `Rose Cottage, Church Lane` is a complete street line with no number, and many business premises carry both a name and a number | | The postcode identifies a handful of addresses | a full postcode covers about fifteen delivery points, so it narrows an address far more than a European post code does | | Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man use British postcodes but are not in the United Kingdom | they have their own country codes, `JE`, `GG` and `IM`, while their postcodes start with `JE`, `GY` and `IM` | ### The elements | Element | What it is | Used to address mail | Example | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | nation | England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland | no | England | | council area | the unitary authority, county, metropolitan district, London borough or council area that administers the address | no | Southwark | | post town | the town of the delivery office, which is not necessarily the place the address is in | yes, and it is required | `LONDON` | | dependent locality | a village or district inside a post town, used where Royal Mail needs it to tell two streets of the same name apart | yes, where it applies | Didsbury | | street line | building number and street, and sometimes a dependent street off the main one | yes | `2 Southwark Bridge Road` | | building name | the name of a building, written above the street line or instead of the number | yes, where the building has one | `Riverside House` | | sub-building | a flat, unit or suite inside a building | yes, where it applies | `Unit 4` | | postcode | outward code (area and district) and inward code (sector and unit), separated by one space | yes | `SE1 9HA` | A complete address in the form Royal Mail asks for: ``` Acme Ltd Unit 4, Riverside House 2 Southwark Bridge Road LONDON SE1 9HA ``` The post town is in capitals on a line of its own, and the postcode is on the last line. No county is written. That is a presentation convention for the envelope; CDQ stores each value separately. ### The postcode A postcode has two halves. The **outward code** names the area (one or two letters, `SE`) and the district (one or two digits, sometimes followed by a letter, `SE1`, `EC1A`). The **inward code** is always a digit and two letters (`9HA`) and names the sector and the unit inside the district. | Format | Example | | --- | --- | | `A9 9AA` | `M1 1AE` | | `A99 9AA` | `B33 8TH` | | `AA9 9AA` | `CR2 6XH` | | `AA99 9AA` | `DN55 1PT` | | `A9A 9AA` | `W1A 1HQ` | | `AA9A 9AA` | `EC1A 1BB` | Postcodes are written in capitals with exactly one space before the inward code. Because the inward code always has three characters, the space can be restored from a value written without one: `SE19HA` is `SE1 9HA`. Northern Ireland uses the single postcode area `BT`. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man use `GY` (Guernsey), `JE` (Jersey) and `IM` (Isle of Man) in the same format. ### Properties that regularly cause integration errors The post town is not the municipality The post town is the town of the delivery office that serves the address. A village a few miles outside a town carries that town's name on its mail, and an address in Greater London carries `LONDON`, `CROYDON` or `HARROW` depending on the office that serves it, not on the borough it is in. The post town cannot be used as a key for the council area, and a mismatch between the town you hold and the post town a lookup returns is usually not an error in either. **The county a record carries is often not a council area.** Royal Mail no longer uses the county to sort mail, so records keep whatever county they were first entered with: a former postal county (`Middlesex`), a ceremonial county (`West Midlands`, `Greater Manchester`) or a county that has since been split into unitary authorities. None of these is the council area that administers the address today. **A building name is part of the address, not a comment.** Where a building has a name and no number, the name is the only thing that identifies it on the street. Where it has both, the name is often written on a line of its own above the street. Systems that drop the line above the street, or map it to a care-of field, lose the address. **Flats and units come first.** `Flat 2`, `Unit 4` or `Suite 12` is written before the building name and the street, often on the same line. Both a separate line and a prefix to the street line occur in real data. **Northern Ireland is part of `GB`.** Since the Windsor Framework, goods trade and VAT for Northern Ireland use the prefix `XI`. That prefix identifies a VAT and customs status, not a country: a Northern Irish address is a `GB` address in the nation Northern Ireland. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are not GB The three Crown dependencies are outside the United Kingdom, and each has its own ISO 3166-1 code: `JE`, `GG` and `IM`. A Jersey address delivered as `GB` with a `JE` postcode is a wrong country, not an alternative spelling. Note that Guernsey's postcodes start with `GY` while its country code is `GG`. ## How CDQ models a United Kingdom address The CDQ address model has two parallel hierarchies. **Administrative areas** represent the political containers, typed `REGION` and `COUNTY`. **Localities** represent the places themselves, typed `CITY`, `DISTRICT`, `QUARTER` or `BLOCK`. Streets are held as **thoroughfares** with the number in its own field, and flats, units and named buildings as typed **premises**. The United Kingdom maps as follows: | United Kingdom element | CDQ concept | Type | SAP field | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | nation | administrative area, level 1 | `REGION` | `region` | | council area | administrative area, level 2 | `COUNTY` | `county`, with its code in the county code field | | post town | locality, level 1 | `CITY` | `city` | | dependent locality | locality, level 2 | `DISTRICT` | `district` | | street | thoroughfare | `STREET` | street | | building number | thoroughfare number | n/a | house number | | building name | premise | `BUILDING` | building | | unit, suite | premise | `UNIT`, `SUITE` | street 5 | | floor | premise | `LEVEL` | floor | | flat | premise | `APARTMENT` | room number | | PO Box | postal delivery point | `POST_OFFICE_BOX` | PO box | | postcode | post code | `REGULAR` | post code | The number is delivered before the street The United Kingdom is one of the countries for which the formatted address writes the number in front of the street value, giving `2 Southwark Bridge Road`. The two values remain separate in the model; only the presentation is reversed. **A building name is used to find the address.** When the premise is a named building, CDQ includes its name in the address it looks up, so `Riverside House, Southwark Bridge Road` can be resolved even without a number. ### Mapping the region to an SAP region key CDQ delivers the nation in administrative area level 1, with its ISO 3166-2 code (`GB-ENG`, `GB-SCT`, `GB-WLS`, `GB-NIR`), and the council area in level 2, with its own ISO 3166-2 code (`GB-SWK` for Southwark). An SAP system does not validate against ISO: it validates the region field against its own region key table, `T005S`, which is part of a customer's configuration. The region key is customer-specific configuration, so this standard does not define one: a `T005S` is specific to a customer and to a client, and no single value would be correct everywhere. What this standard fixes is the ISO 3166-2 code. The mapping from it to the key your system expects is yours to maintain. For the United Kingdom the level matters more than the key. Four nations are too coarse for most uses, so a British `T005S` often holds counties instead, and those counties may be the historic list rather than today's council areas. Check which level your table holds. If it holds counties, map from the council-area code CDQ delivers in the county code field, not from the nation. ### Worked example `Unit 4, Riverside House, 2 Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA`, in the CDQ address model: | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Country | `GB` | | Administrative area 1 (`REGION`) | England | | Administrative area 1 code | `GB-ENG` | | Administrative area 2 (`COUNTY`) | Southwark | | Administrative area 2 code | `GB-SWK` | | Locality 1 (`CITY`) | London | | Thoroughfare (`STREET`) | Southwark Bridge Road | | Thoroughfare number | `2` | | Premise (`BUILDING`) | Riverside House | | Premise (`UNIT`) | `4` | | Post code | `SE1 9HA` | ## Reference data CDQ maintains for the United Kingdom These tables are extracts The examples below show the shape of each dataset, not its full contents. The complete published lists for the United Kingdom are on the CDQ Wiki page [business partner metadata for the United Kingdom](https://meta.cdq.com/DataModel:CDQ/Business_Partner/Address/Country/GB), which also covers legal forms, identifier types and the integrated data sources. ### Nations **4 entries**, one per nation, each with its ISO 3166-2 code and names in several languages. | Code | English | | --- | --- | | `GB-ENG` | England | | `GB-SCT` | Scotland | | `GB-WLS` | Wales | | `GB-NIR` | Northern Ireland | ### Council areas **216 entries**, each linked to its nation and keyed by its ISO 3166-2 code: 151 in England, 32 in Scotland, 22 in Wales and 11 in Northern Ireland. Welsh areas with a Welsh name carry it as well as the English one. | Code | Nation | Name | | --- | --- | --- | | `GB-SWK` | `GB-ENG` | Southwark | | `GB-KEN` | `GB-ENG` | Kent | | `GB-GLG` | `GB-SCT` | Glasgow City | | `GB-CRF` | `GB-WLS` | Cardiff, also matched as Caerdydd | | `GB-BFS` | `GB-NIR` | Belfast City | The list follows ISO 3166-2. Where ISO has not yet caught up with a local government reorganisation, neither has the list: Cumbria, replaced in 2023 by Cumberland and by Westmorland and Furness, is still delivered as Cumbria. ### Street types **133 entries**, each with an abbreviation. Royal Mail writes street types in full, so the full word is what belongs on a British street line. | Term | Abbreviation | | --- | --- | | ROAD | `RD` | | STREET | `ST` | | LANE | `LN` | | AVENUE | `AVE` | | CRESCENT | `CRES` | | SQUARE | `SQ` | | TERRACE | `TER` | The same list carries the post office box vocabulary: `PO Box`, `P.O. Box`, `P.O.` and `Box` all identify a post office box. ### Postcode format The six formats shown above, validated in capitals. A `GB` or `GB-` prefix in front of the postcode is removed. The value is not otherwise rewritten. Post code normalisation is currently available for Canada, Mexico and the Netherlands. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man each have their own postcode format under their own country code. What CDQ standardises The **nation** is standardised against reference data and delivered with its ISO 3166-2 code. The **council area** is standardised against reference data, by name or by code, and its ISO 3166-2 code is written back. That code is what to map an SAP county or region key from. **Street types** are recognised in the street text: the street value carries the full word and the street short name the abbreviation. The **building name** is used to look the address up, so a named building without a number can still be resolved. ## Current limitations These are the gaps worth knowing about before designing an integration. | Limitation | What it means for an integration | | --- | --- | | **The country code is kept as supplied** | CDQ does not rewrite the country code you send. `UK` or `XI` is not converted to `GB`, and a Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man address sent as `GB` stays `GB`. Send `GB` for the United Kingdom and `JE`, `GG` or `IM` for the Crown dependencies. | | **The postcode is not normalised** | A missing space is not inserted and lower case is not raised, so `se19ha` and `SE1 9HA` remain two different values to a comparison. Normalise the postcode on your side: capitals, and one space before the last three characters. | | **Only council areas resolve as counties** | Former postal counties (`Middlesex`), ceremonial counties (`West Midlands`, `Greater Manchester`) and counties since split into unitary authorities are not in the list, so they are not standardised. Names follow the ISO form, such as `Durham, County` and `Bristol, City of`. Where you need the council area, derive it from the postcode on your side or supply it by its ISO code. | | **The street type list is not British** | The published street types follow the North American postal vocabulary. Common British types such as `Close`, `Mews`, `Parade`, `Gardens` and `Wynd` are not all published, so they are not recognised as street types, and the published abbreviations are not British usage. | | **Flat, unit and floor vocabulary is not published** | `Flat 2`, `Unit 4` or `Floor 3` written into the street text may not be parsed into a premise. Supply flats, units and floors in their own fields where you need them there. | | **One dependent locality is carried** | A double dependent locality, used by Royal Mail in a few rural areas, has no level of its own; only the first dependent locality reaches the district field. | ## Summary A British address is addressed by its post town and its postcode. The post town, in capitals, names the delivery office rather than the place, and the postcode, in two halves separated by one space, narrows the address to about fifteen doors. The street line carries a number, a building name or both, and a flat or unit comes before them. The county is not postal, and the county a record carries is often not today's council area. The country code for the whole United Kingdom, Northern Ireland included, is `GB`. `UK` is only reserved, and `XI` identifies a VAT and customs status. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man use British-format postcodes under their own country codes, `JE`, `GG` and `IM`. CDQ places the nation in administrative area level 1 and the council area in level 2, each with its ISO 3166-2 code, so an SAP county or region key can be mapped from the council-area code. The post town goes in locality level 1, the street and its number stay in separate fields, and a named building, a unit or a flat are typed premises. All 4 nations and 216 council areas are maintained as CDQ reference data. The street type list follows the North American vocabulary rather than British usage, and flat, unit and floor words are not yet published. ## Related Resources - [Business partner metadata for the United Kingdom](https://meta.cdq.com/DataModel:CDQ/Business_Partner/Address/Country/GB) - [United States Address Standard](/documentation/_public/product-manuals/address-guard/country-standards/united-states-address-standard) - [France Address Standard](/documentation/_public/product-manuals/address-guard/country-standards/france-address-standard) - [Germany Address Standard](/documentation/_public/product-manuals/address-guard/country-standards/germany-address-standard) ## Your opinion matters! We are constantly working on providing an outstanding user experience with our products. Please share your opinion about this tutorial!