SO postcode area
Coordinates: 50°57′32″N 1°21′54″W / 50.959°N 1.365°W
| Southampton postcode area | |
 SO
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| Postcode area | SO |
|---|---|
| Postcode area name | Southampton |
| Post towns | 9 |
| Postcode districts | 29 |
| Postcode sectors | 171 |
| Postcodes (live) | 18,261 |
| Postcodes (total) | 37,403 |
| Statistics as at October 2006 [1] | |
The SO postcode area, also known as the Southampton postcode area[2], is a group of postcode districts around Alresford, Brockenhurst, Eastleigh, Lymington, Lyndhurst, Romsey, Southampton, Stockbridge and Winchester in England.
In the early 1990s Royal Mail realised there was a shortage of available postcodes in the SO postcode area.[3] The existing SO1-SO5 postcode districts were in too short supply to satisfy demand, and some new developments had to be issued with odd SO9 postcodes as all possibilities in the existing range had been exhausted. On 1 December 1993 postcodes for the entire region were replaced with new codes containing subdivisions of four digits instead of three. SO1, for example, was divided into SO14-SO19. Whilst this created thousands more possible combinations it has resulted in the unusual situation where the centre of the postcode area, Southampton City Centre, lacks a '1' numbered postcode. Southampton is one of only a handful of areas in the country where this is the case.
Contents |
[edit] Coverage
The approximate coverage of the postcode districts:
[edit] Adjacent areas
| Adjacent postcode areas | ||
|---|---|---|
| SP | RG | GU |
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| BH |  SO  |
PO |
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Clockwise from the east, the adjacent postcode areas are: PO (Portsmouth), BH (Bournemouth), SP (Salisbury), RG (Reading), GU (Guildford).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "National Statistics Postcode Directory" (PDF). Office for National Statistics Postcode Directory (November 2006). Office for National Statistics. November 2006. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/downloads/NSPDVersionNotes.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
- ^ Royal Mail, Address Management Guide, (2004)
- ^ http://www2.geog.soton.ac.uk/geo-refer/go1_050_c15p00000000snsw.html
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