I keep reading British “procedural” mysteries, and the bobbies with tell the detective a suspect’s address is (I quote) “Cuckoo’s Nest, East Riding Way, Nether Poppleton”. And then add that the Cuckoo’s Nest part was his cynical way of saying he was adopted.
I had a Brit friend who’s name was Phelleck and Gave his address as Phelleck Symbol, … (I didn’t get it, but he said to say it out loud).
So, anyway, can you really dispense with the street digits and still get your mail delivered to you? I suppose the house name would have to be where the number usually goes?
Yes you can, but the post office don’t like it if you live on a long street. Your house will still have an official number, but if you put up a prominent name sign, then mail will be correctly posted to your house if the name is used instead of the number. With a name it is even more important for the poster to get the post code (zip) correct.
In practice though, once the name is established, dropping the number will not cause a problem.
I’m pretty sure that renaming your house is somewhat akin to the approval process with planning permission and that there are guidelines to which you must adhere; you couldn’t (I don’t think) name your house MonkeyFuck Cottage.
Lots of streets in the UK, especially in rural areas, aren’t numbered. In a small village with only a few dozen houses, there’s really no need, as anybody knows where, say, Rose Cottage is.
In the town where I grew up there were quite a few streets, mostly unsealed roads on the outskirts, with no house numbers at all. I used to do a paper round and it took a long while to figure out where they all were - especially as the orders were listed in alphabetical order of house name, which of course bore no resemblance to the order on the street.
Remember, too, that house numbers are not necessarily a very good guide to where you’ll find the house - in the UK we don’t use a block numbering system like you find in the US. This does have the benefit that you don’t end up with ridiculous numbers in the 30,000 range…
In practice you can, but the post office don’t like it
My parents’ house has a name rather than a number, and every few years the post office used to send a stern letter telling us to put a number 17 up outside as well to make it easier for the postmen. We never bothered…
Not only can you more or less name your house whatever, but you are not compelled by law to display the house name or number anywhere. In Germany, for example, it’s required by law (or so I was once informed). This can often make it hard to locate a specific address, but some people don’t seem to be bothered about that, and it only takes a little while for the post man to learn who you are and deliver your mail accordingly. Typical English lack of care, organisation and efficiency, but there you go. We are what we are.
Many, many times, I’ve spent long minutes trying to describe local landmarks with a cell phone clutched to my ear (even to locals), so that we can have some faint hope of meeting up.
So, who can tell us what and where is the highest (legit) street number in the USA? Perhaps somewhere on the ALCAN Highway? (Although strictly speaking, it’s not entirely in the US, so let’s say, North America. ) Is this Switchboard.com-able?
Yonge Street in Ontario is something over 1000 miles long (from Lake Ontario in Toronto up to Thunder Bay, IIRC). Every 10,000 or so street addresses, they start counting at 1 again.
Who says it’s just in Britain? Here in Minneapolis many major buildings in the downtown area are referred to by a name (e.g. “The Roanoke Building”). Technically all buildings have a number, but often people use the name even in things like phone listings and return addresses on mail. If you don’t already know where that building is, finding it can be a hassle.
Even worse are the office parks that have sprung up off of major freeways, where sometimes there just aren’t any neighboring buildings to provide a regular number sequence. e.g. “XYZ Staffing, Suite 1500 Bloomington Office Park, I-494 in Bloomington”.
They promote Yonge Street as the longest street in the world, but what they’re really talking about is Provincial Highway 11, which includes Yonge Street.
Both routes start at the T-junction at Queens Quay and Yonge. Lake Ontario is on the south side of this intersection. The headquarters of the Toronto Star newspaper is on the northeast corner, at One Yonge. On the northwest corner is a public art installation that I call ‘The Atomic Eggbeater’.
Yonge Street proper, however, ends at the town of Holland Landing. It’s Highway 11 that continues to Rainy River.
Street addresses are continuous, I believe, from One Yonge all the way to Newmarket at least, the last town before Holland Landing. I fairly certain I’ve seen ads that say things like ‘Dave’s Motors, 17 000 Yonge St, Newmarket’. But I don’t think the name or numbering continue past Holland Landing.
Yep. The Royal Mail website has a postal address finder that displays all addresses they have recorded for a particular post code. It does include names (although not necessarily regularly updated).
Perhaps worth adding: as others say, you can name your house, but it’s another matter whether you should. It’s considered a bit of a joke when someone in a mid-terrace gives their house a name (such names are almost invariably naff). And there’s the syndrome of one-horse home businesses inventing addresses like “Mercantile House” to fool mail-order customers into thinking they have big company premises.
Try rural US addresses. Most places do not mark the route or the box number and if marked, usually just the latter. So if you wish to live anonymously… Actually, there are maps in places showing the route numbers, or so I’ve heard. Never saw one myself.