User:LordGarySugar/UK Addresses

This page is intended to counteract the misinformation in Addresses in the United Kingdom and significantly simplify guidance, while also documenting the way I have used addresses in Hertfordshire.

Δ: represents how many occurrences of the tag exist in Herts per capita, compared to per capita in the UK. For example a value of 200% means there are 2x as many of tag X in Herts than the UK, both per capita. This is for my own analysis to show which tags are used significantly more or significantly less than in the country as a whole.

Tag	Definition	Usage	Envelope Address	Tagging
addr:flats		UK: 28,500 Herts: 346 Δ: 73%
addr:housenumber		UK: 5,320,000 Herts: 171,000 Δ: 192%
addr:housename		UK: 456,000 Herts: 6900 Δ: 91%
addr:unit		UK: 34,000 Herts: 300 Δ: 535%
addr:street	The street that an address belongs to. This must correspond to the name of a nearby highway=* way (highway=footway is valid). In the case where a street has different names on either side of the road (and is slash-named, for example 'Oxford Terrace/Cambridge Terrace'), addr:street=* must match either name:left=* or name:right=*. In the case where a street name is signed in multiple languages and has e.g. name:en=* and name:cy=* set, addr:street=* must match whatever is in name=*. Addresses must feature either an addr:street=* tag or addr:place=* tag, and never both.	UK: 7,200,000 Herts: 187,000 Δ: 160%
addr:substreet	Used when a housenumber, housename or unit number is first grouped in some way that is not a named street or settlement. Examples include a named terrace on a named street, a unit inside a shopping centre, a named parade of shops on a high street or a named collection of houses on an unnamed road. If there is no named road to which an address belongs, addr:substreet should still be used, but in conjunction with addr:place.	UK: 9380 Herts: 990 Δ: 634%
addr:parentstreet	To be used when an addr:street tag is present, but this named street 'belongs' to a larger street. However, it's often not possible to identify that such a relationship exists without the use of Royal Mail or other propriety address data. In the example given addr:street refers to a named service road which itself 'belongs' to the tertiary road. If there was no named service road, this would be a case for addr:substreet + addr:street.	UK: 24,700 Herts: 99 Δ: 24%	2 Willow Gate Eye Road Peterborough PE1 4RS	https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1119403176 addr:housenumber=2 addr:street=Willow Gate addr:parenstreet=Eye Road addr:city=Peterborough addr:postcode=PE1 4RS
addr:place	The name of the settlement by which an address is grouped, where it is not grouped by any named street. Should therefore not be used in conjunction with addr:street or addr:parentstreet. Often multiple settlements are featured in the full address, in this example the name of the hamlet, nearby village and post town are given by Royal Mail. It makes sense to use the hamlet name as addr:place, as the addr:village of Kings Walden is less verifiable and is more of a Royal Mail concept (assigning a hamlet to a nearby village).	UK: 38,300 Herts: 154 Δ: 24%	1 New Cottages Frogmore Kings Walden Hitchin SG4 8NL	https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/791802907 addr:housenumber=1 addr:substreet=New Cottages addr:place=Frogmore addr:village=Kings Walden addr:city=Hitchin addr:postcode=SG4 8NL
addr:city	The post town assigned by Royal Mail. This can be derived from the postcode, for example postcodes starting EN6 have addr:city=Potters Bar, despite not being a city.	UK: 7,560,000 Herts: 244,000 Δ: 193%	71 Cotton Road Potters Bar EN6 5JJ	https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/975722958 addr:housenumber=71 addr:street=Cotton Road addr:city=Potters Bar addr:postcode=EN6 5JJ
addr:suburb	The name of the suburb that an address is located in. Should correspond to the name of a nearby place=suburb node. Useful if the name of the suburb is displayed alongside the post town e.g. on a poi's website.	UK: 843,000 Herts: 3950 Δ: 28%	17 Warwick Way Croxley Green Rickmansworth WD3 3SB	https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/929616974 addr:housenumber=17 addr:street=Warwick Way addr:suburb=Croxley Green addr:city=Rickmansworth addr:postcode=WD3 3SB
addr:town	The name of the town that an address is located in. Should correspond to the name of a nearby place=town node. Useful when the town an address belongs to is not a post town. Where the town is a post town, record this as addr:city=* and omit addr:town=*. For this reason, addr:town=* should not be present in Hertfordshire as all towns are post towns.	UK: 43000 Herts:52 Δ: 7%
addr:village	The name of the village that an address is located in. Should correspond to the name of a nearby place=village node. Useful as the name of the village is more human-friendly than the post town which may be many miles away. If the address has no named street and is grouped by a village, use addr:place to record the village name.	UK: 183,000 Herts: 2170 Δ: 71%	30 The Street Braughing Ware SG11 2QR	https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/169049341 addr:housenumber=30 addr:street=The Street aaddr:village=Braughing addr:city=Ware addr:postcode=SG11 2QR
addr:hamlet	The name of the hamlet that an address is located in. Should correspond to the name of a nearby place=hamlet node. Useful as the name of the hamlet is more human-friendly than the post town which may be many miles away. If the address has no named street and is grouped by a hamlet, use addr:place to record the hamlet name.	UK: 13,400 Herts: 82 Δ: 36%	Red Lion Leighton Buzzard Road Water End Hemel Hempstead HP1 3BD	https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/204825506 name=Red Lion addr:street=Leighton Buzzard Road addr:hamlet=Water End addr:city=Hemel Hempstead addr:postcode=HP1 3BD addr:housename omitted as this is a named poi
addr:postcode	The postcode assigned by Royal Mail to an address.	UK: 7,630,000 Herts: 227,000 Δ: 178%	82 King George Road Ware SG12 7DT	https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/432968390 addr:housenumber=82 addr:street=King George Road addr:city=Ware addr:postcode=SG12 7DT

In-use tags to avoid

Tag	Definition	Usage	Rationale to avoid
addr:county=*	The county an address is in, e.g. addr:county=Hertfordshire	UK: 225,000 Herts: 1140 Δ: 30%	Counties are not required in addresses since 1996 - it is unclear if the tag would refer to the current ceremonial county or the abolished postal county that an address is located within. Regardless, the county can be automatically inferred from admin boundaries.
addr:country=*	The country an address is in, e.g. addr:country=GB	UK: 1,480,000 Herts:48,800 Δ: 198%	Like addr:county, this tag can be automatically derived from admin boundaries. This tag could be useful if there is an address located directly on the border between e.g. Northern Ireland and the ROI, but there are no examples like this tagged presently.
type=associatedStreet	Relation used to group addresses and street ways together	UK: 7530 Herts:0 Δ: 0%	associatedStreet relations are not added by mappers anymore - addr:street should be added to all non-street members of the relation & the relation deleted. Manual review is necessary as there may be errors due to how old many of these relations are.