UK postcodes: The intrigue!

[Mary Ann]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> 
wrote:
> Ah yes, David and all ye British folk...
> 
> While we're on the subject of UK addresses, something that has 
always perplexed me is those double barrelled postcodes like BS23 
3JL.  How do they work?

In the case of the above postcode, oh Venerable Salad, BS stands for 
Bristol, though the town from which this postcode hails is a good 20 
miles outside the city, which can be summized from the 23 bit.  
Inside the city you'd find BS1 to something like BS9; in the 
surrounding areas the number are doubled with only a few exceptions.  
23 indicates the town.  Now I'm not entirely sure about the rest, but 
I think the next 3 indicates a section within the town, the J narrows 
it down to a few streets, and the L tells you if the house number is 
even or odd.

> I also notice that Canada has similar postcodes.  What's the story 
there?

Well, thinking back to my old Canadian postcode, M9A 1T6, M stands 
for any address within Toronto proper, 9 indicates the west end 
numbers 1 to 9 run from east to west), A indicates south-central 
location, and the last bit simply narrows it down much like the 
British postcodes do.  As I said, any postcode starting with M is 
bound to be within Toronto proper, other postcode starters, such as 
P, cover thousands of square kilometres (northern Ontario in P's 
case).  Trivial garbage moment:  postcodes beginning with P7A, P7B 
and P7C are found in Thunder Bay.  The letters go from east to west; 
Newfoundland has A, and the Yukon has Z.

Aren't I just a veritable fountain of trivial nonsense?

Mary Ann
(who wishes she could remember important stuff, like her bank card 
PIN number and her kids' names)