|
|
Post by whollygoats on Dec 3, 2012 18:07:39 GMT
In the US, we call our postal code 'zip codes', it's the 5 numbers that follow the state in an address. A few years ago they came up with zip plus 4, which was formatted 12345-1234. The extra four numbers supposedly give every address in the country a unique postal code. I'm doubtful on that claim. The postal code area I live in is quite sizeable. There are a goodly number of apartment units in various places within the postal code area. I'm not sure that there are under 9999 unique addresses. That said, I had one Brit who commented on our 'odd' numbering system, with addresses having considerable spacing and addresses growing into the multiple thousands. In my town, it's all based upon each 200 foot block equaling a possible 100 addresses and the city being divided into quintrants. My house is, say, 3972. I live in SE on a 'street'. This means that it is 39 blocks from the origin line dividing east and west, in this case, the river, because it is on a street which runs east and west. Avenues, which run north and south, have a similar address numbers indicating how far they are from the north-south dividing line, in this case, Burnside Street. There are seven houses within the 3900 block on my side of the street. The south side has all even addresses: 3912, 3927, 3939, 3952, 3970...and the houses on either end face crossing streets, so their addresses are in the 2500 blocks of those streets. Of course, not all blocks are 200 feet, so the hundred number will change on longer blocks between intersections that are more than a block apart. In undeveloped areas, addresses will jump by hundreds of numbers...from 20477 clear out to 22388 as the next number. I got the impression that, in Britain, the numbers are consecutive, no matter how far apart (presumably as long as they are in the same postal code area). Even if it is a matter of miles, the address after 20477 would be 20478. Is everybody thoroughly confused yet? |
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Dec 3, 2012 18:18:09 GMT
In the US, we call our postal code 'zip codes', it's the 5 numbers that follow the state in an address. A few years ago they came up with zip plus 4, which was formatted 12345-1234. The extra four numbers supposedly give every address in the country a unique postal code. I'm doubtful on that claim. The postal code area I live in is quite sizeable. There are a goodly number of apartment units in various places within the postal code area. I'm not sure that there are under 9999 unique addresses. Then surely they could add letters instead of some numbers and have more combinations than could ever be necessary? |
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Dec 3, 2012 18:48:16 GMT
I'm doubtful on that claim. The postal code area I live in is quite sizeable. There are a goodly number of apartment units in various places within the postal code area. I'm not sure that there are under 9999 unique addresses. Then surely they could add letters instead of some numbers and have more combinations than could ever be necessary? I suspect that's how they deal with it...Each apartment complex may have a single address (or a few addresses associated with blocks of apartments) and then alpha apartment designations. Still that just gets to apartment blocks using the numeric code, not individual apartments. Close enough for the toasted posty. |
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Dec 3, 2012 18:55:15 GMT
Tell me. In Britain...when a structure needing an address number is built between, say, 47 Twackyerforhed Road and the next building down the road at 48 Twackyerforhed Road...How are adress numbers assigned it? Do you use fractions, or decimal numbering, or letters? Or, maybe asterisks? Or, footnotes?
|
|
|
|
Post by Moose on Dec 3, 2012 18:56:03 GMT
Well we .. don't tend to build in between our 47s and our 48s. To be perfectly honest, there is generally not enough room to do so.
|
|
|
|
Post by Miisa on Dec 3, 2012 19:01:06 GMT
We would then just make it 47a and 47b.
|
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Dec 3, 2012 19:22:33 GMT
Where there is a large plot of land, the Council generally leave a gap in the numbers to allow for new house. If it were a gross oversight and a large plot of land were left in between consecutive numbers, the new houses would belong to a Mews or a Court with numbers starting at 1.
|
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Dec 3, 2012 19:31:50 GMT
Well we .. don't tend to build in between our 47s and our 48s. To be perfectly honest, there is generally not enough room to do so. Here, we would tear down both 47 and 48 and erect twenty seven new units on the newly leveled lots. The new units would be bracketed by 46 and 49, of course. |
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Dec 3, 2012 19:34:49 GMT
Where there is a large plot of land, the Council generally leave a gap in the numbers to allow for new house. If it were a gross oversight and a large plot of land were left in between consecutive numbers, the new houses would belong to a Mews or a Court with numbers starting at 1. 'Mews'? I thought that was housing for birds of prey. Yet, I've seen this term used as 'housing'....in York, the smallest vintage domicile in the city is called 'The Mews'. It also seemed to me to designate substandard housing for the destitute....But I see that the online dictionary references it as stables, often with a second, upper, level of human habitation above the stables. So...There we are on Thwackyerhed Lane, strolling down the street, and we pass 45, and then 46, and then 47 and then it's 1, and maybe 2, or more, and then back to 48? That would be disconcerting. |
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Dec 3, 2012 20:05:36 GMT
One minor detail. When a road is first built, the usual convention is to allocate odd numbers to houses on the left as you go away from town, and to allocate even numbers to houses on the right. And so, 47 Thwackyerhed Lane would be followed by 49 Thwackyerhed Lane before the new houses were built. (But the Mews or Court would be numbered 1, 2, 3, 4... and not 1, 3, 5... )
An exception to the odd-number/even-number rule is a cul-de-sac which is usually numbered consecutively in a clockwise direction.
Sometimes the designation Mews is used for a block of flats. They don't have to be individual houses.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Dec 3, 2012 20:16:54 GMT
One minor detail. When a road is first built, the usual convention is to allocate odd numbers to houses on the left as you go away from town, and to allocate even numbers to houses on the right. In a nicely curved road, this can often lead to 1 and 2 being opposite each other, but so are 100 and 75.  |
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Dec 3, 2012 20:38:03 GMT
Yes...We do the same here. My house is even-numbered, as are all my neighbors on my side (south) of the street. My neighbors across the street on the north side have odd-numbered addresses.
If you know the system, you can readily locate the address on most maps. The city streets are basically arranged in a grid. By the 'street/avenue' distinction, you can tell whether the place is on a north-south oriented roadway, or a east-west oriented one. Boulevards, roads and the like tend to wander and go almost any direction (former cow paths, usually). Circles, terraces, courts, lanes, drives, and the like are unusual configurations like cul-de-sacs and winding dead end roadways.
|
|
