UK Suburb Database

Question

This is not a really technical question but is required for a system I am building. I am after a UK suburb/postcode database. I haven't been able to find this anywhere and wonder if it is available (freely). I know in Australia is is freely downloadable from Australia Post. Also a US suburb/zip database is required as a secondary concern.

Answer 1

Might be worth looking at Where can I get postal codes for all countries?

Accepted answer there was http://www.geonames.org/, but some other options listed too.

Answer 2

To get the US Postal System's database tools go here:

US Postal System Database tools

Answer 3

UK-specific:

You can purchase the information from Royal Mail. The database is known as the P.A.F. details here It's ridiculously expensive, and you have to pay yearly. A total mugging in my opinion, but there it is.

Alternatively you can use a 3rd party distributor, not much cheaper really, but offer better APIs. We use Postcode Anywhere, who have nasty stringent licenses, but very nice APIs for embedding the search in applications/websites etc.

Answer 4

The Royal mail PAf data is less than affordable, but if you request the sample data from the royal mail they include the complete localities table, along with the postcode sector that locality appears in (So, for example, "East Bergholt" in "CO6 7"). It also includes flags to show if the locality is required for postal sorting, in case the postcode is not legible.

In addition, as eluded to in this other post, the lat/longs for every UK postcode have been leaked.