UK Post code database

[jaymc]

Does anyone know of a free API to lookup a UK postcode and return street, city, town etc..

 

 

[zq29]

You'd be lucky as that information is copy-written and owned by the Royal Mail, whoever would be providing it would be breaking their license agreement. You might be able to do some approximate searches with one of Googles APIs, but it probably won't be as accurate as you are looking for.

[JonnoTheDev]

You'd be lucky as that information is copy-written and owned by the Royal Mail, whoever would be providing it would be breaking their license agreement. You might be able to do some approximate searches with one of Googles APIs, but it probably won't be as accurate as you are looking for.

The Royal Mail database will soon be open source as part of government legislation. It was set to be open as of April this year, however I have not checked it out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8402327.stm

 

I recently went to a conference where the following were doing a presentation on using postcode data. It is a paid service, but check it out. I have used before and it's easy to implement.

http://www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk/

[zq29]

I heave read things every so often about them opening up the PAF, but it never materializes. I wouldn't hold your breath.

[JonnoTheDev]

I heave read things every so often about them opening up the PAF, but it never materializes. I wouldn't hold your breath.

I was speaking to a rep from RM last week. The data will be released. I think they are still working on how to make it accessible.

[cags]

Which is going to take weeks at best, but most likely months and it's possible it could be years. I certainly won't be holding my breath that long.

[zq29]

I heave read things every so often about them opening up the PAF, but it never materializes. I wouldn't hold your breath.

I was speaking to a rep from RM last week. The data will be released. I think they are still working on how to make it accessible.

Well, if that is the case, awesome! But based on track record, I'll believe it when I see it.

[JonnoTheDev]

The IT team are probably on strike!

[malkocoglu]

    // First, we need to take their postcode and get the lat/lng pair:

    $postcode = $_REQUEST['postcode'];

    // Sanitize their postcode:

    $search_code = urlencode($postcode);

    $url = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=' . $search_code . '&sensor=false';

    $json = json_decode(file_get_contents($url));

    $lat = $json->results[0]->geometry->location->lat;

    $lng = $json->results[0]->geometry->location->lng;

    // Now build the lookup:

    $address_url = 'http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=' . $lat . ',' . $lng . '&sensor=false';

    $address_json = json_decode(file_get_contents($address_url));

    $address_data = $address_json->results[0]->address_components;

    $street = str_replace('Dr', 'Drive', $address_data[1]->long_name);

    $town = $address_data[2]->long_name;

    $county = $address_data[3]->long_name;

	$city = $address_data[4]->long_name;

	$country = $address_data[5]->long_name;

	$array = array('street' => $street, 'town' => $town, 'city' => $city, 'country' => $country);

    //echo json_encode($array);

	echo $array = implode(", ",$array);

[NetKongen]

Wikidata has alot of stuff - maybe it has what you are looking for?