Download Free Uk Postcode Map
I am trying to find the shapefiles for postcode sector and districts in the UK. Specifically inside London. I know I can go and pay for these but I only really need to use them once. I want to generate my own mapping tiles with the shapes on one version of the tiles. Allowing me to show all the postcode boundaries without overloading the JavaScript on the client side.
I could 'redraw' some of shapes myself (tracing from others) but would be great if there were some shapefiles already out there.
Can anyone help?
This UK Postcode Area Map has all the postcode boundaries in a vector format and also lists all the 2 character postcodes along with the postal town associated with those post code area letters. Download a FREE UK postcode map here.
PolyGeo♦Uk Postcode
6 Answers
We've recently released reconstructed postcode boundaries in shapefile format for UK postcode areas, districts and sectors (reconstructed from unit postcode geocodes using Voronoi etc). They are free to use. Obviously the reconstruction is approximate and may not be suitable for all purposes. They are available at http://www.opendoorlogistics.com/data.
Find A Postcode Uk
Someone has done it using various royalty and copyright free sources of data - see http://random.dev.openstreetmap.org/postcodes/. In my view the best is the Code-Point Opendata as it comes straight from Royal Mail. I don't think it's quite the same as the actual Royal Mail files but it's probably accurate enough. The files don't seem to be available so you could either contact the author or replicate the process, using the provided source code.
An alternative would be to download the OS OpenData Code-Point and run a tool to create Voroni Polygons on them - this is how the polygons linked are created I think. Most GIS programs should be able to accomplish this task.
If you qualify for the OS PSMA (Public Sector Mapping Agreement) then you can get Codepoint with polygons for free. They provide an excellent service and it's delivered the very next day.
Have a google for PSMA to see if you qualify.
I'm pretty sure that the Postcode data you want is not available for free. I believe Ordnance survey and Royal Mail are still talking about how royalties will be paid/collected when detailed Postcode data is released under the PSMA.
nigellawnigellawEven though this question was asked a long time ago, for anyone trying to find it. This website has the recently updated UK Postcode Area, Postcode District and Postcode Sector shapefiles in the 'GB_Postcodes.zip' file.
Uk Postcode List
You could always get the postal code data from Wikileaks. It is dated now but hey.
UK government database of all 1,841,177 UK postcodes together with latitude and longitude, grid references, county, district, ward, NHS codes and regions, Ordnance Survey reference, and date of introduction. The database was last updated on July 8, 2009 and is over 100,000 pages in size.
The database is structured as a plain text file, with each entry taking one line and with distinct fields separated by commas. The very first line specifies the order of the 17 fields of information about each postcode.
I do not endorse the use of leaked data.