Re: CHAT: postcodes

> Canada has a system similar to UK in that its alphanumeric, but ours go
> like X1X 1X1. I haven't a clue how they came up with the letters though,
> and all I know is that the very first letter represents the province or
> territory, the few I know for sure:
>
> V = British Columbia
> T = Alberta
> R = Manitoba?
> M = Ontario
>
> How they came up with these, I've no clue...
Ah ha. I wondered the same when I was living in Toronto a few years ago,
but I've recently discovered the answer since I'm working for a little
while in a postal sorting office (taking advantage of the unlimited
overtime temporarily available ;), so I've had lots of mail from Canada
to examine until the pattern finally became obvious: It's alphabetic
from east to west. So Newfoundland & PEI are around A, B while Ottawa is
K, TO is M and Vancouver is V.

But I must say there's something almost beautiful about Royal Mail's
system ;). Another pattern I've noticed is that the last two letters
doubled often indicates a central location. For example, my address in
Leamington Spa (which is CV31 for the north side and CV32 for the south
- CV=Coventry) was two minutes' walk from the most central part of the
south side of the town, and the code was CV32 1BB. On the way to that
central part I would pass an MP's office which had the code CV32 1AA
printed on its brass plaque.

As for Ireland, there's no postcode system, with the exception of Dublin
which is divided in Dublin 1, Dublin 2, ... Dublin 24 (skipping 19, 21
& 23). Each of these is a large and ususally "sensible" (i.e. often
divided along historical lines) region, with even numbers for southside
areas and odd for northside (a big cultural division here ;)). 6 was
split a few years ago into 6 and 6W (west). However, the real basis of
these 22 'arrondissements' is that there's one delivery office for each.
There's no more detail, so it's not really a proper postcode system,
and the rest of the country gets on fine without it. Oh, in Northern
Ireland, which of course is part of the UK post code system, the one
"region identifier" BT for Belfast is stretched to cover the whole place.
I've seen it get as high as BT94. Why they couldn't have a DE (oops, I mean
LD) for (London)Derry I know not.

There are also some odd UK postcodes for Islands and in-fact-dependant
"Independent" states:
ZE Shetland Islands
JE Jersey
IM Isle of Man

and there's allegedly one for the Republic of Ireland... I think it's XY5
1AA or something. I smuggled home a packaging slip from work which had it
on it, but it's not to hand.

s.

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