Assuming the post code is seen in OSM as a way of addressing post (as
opposed to a geographic subdivision or an indication of location) then I
suggest following Royal Mail's address structure, which can be seen in
the description of the Postcode Address File on Wikipedia [1]. If we
cannot map a full-format address onto OSM tags, we need a description of
how to deal with this (i.e. which bits to leave out or combine).
I have taken the table from wikipedia and added a column for the OSM
tags where known. Most of these fields are actually optional, or not
always present, depending on the exact address in question.
How do we fill in the blanks?
ELEMENT
FIELD NAME
DESCRIPTION
MAX LENGTH
OSM
Organisation
Organisation Name
60
n/a
Department Name
60
n/a
Premises
Sub Building Name
30
Building Name
50
addr:housename
Building Number
4
addr:housenumber
Thoroughfare
Dependent Thoroughfare Name
60
Dependent Thoroughfare Descriptor
20
Thoroughfare Name
Street
60
addr:street
Thoroughfare Descriptor
20
Locality
Double Dependent Locality
Small villages
35
Dependent Locality
35
Post town
30
addr:city
Postcode
Postcode
7
addr:postcode
PO Box
PO Box
6
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcode_Address_File
On 2019-01-27 21:40, Andrzej wrote:
> Hi,
>
> When working on post codes in East Anglia I realised the current address
> tagging scheme is insufficient for even fairly basic scenarios. I have
> already discussed the issues with some of the most experienced mappers and
> like to bring these issues to your attention. Robert has summarised his ideas
> in https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Rjw62/UK_Address_Mapping
>
> The bottom line is, I would like to be tag commonly used addresses without
> losing information and without resorting to addr:full.
>
> Issues:
> 1. Post towns (most pressing one because there is a lot of confusion around
> it). The UK is fairly unique in that not every town is a post town. This
> makes it impossible to tag e.g. Station Road, Histon, Cambridge CB24 9LF.
> Wiki recommends addr:city to be used for tagging post towns (Cambridge) but
> then how do we tag Histon?
> - Robert recommends sticking to the current meaning of addr:city and using
> addr:town and addr:village for town and village names, which, although not in
> wiki, are already being used in the UK. I like this solution because it is
> very explicit in what each addr: key means and it doesn't redefine addr:city.
> - SK53 prefers using addr:city for everything (towns, even villages) and
> either not tagging post towns (they can be seen as a an internal detail of a
> closed Royal Mail database) or using a new tag for it, like addr:post_town.
> It is a simple solution, results in Histon being called Histon and not
> Cambridge (without introducing new tags for town and village names) and is
> commonly used. It is also a bit confusing (what exactly is a city?) and I
> think we we should at least support tagging post towns.
>
> Key questions:
> a) addr:city for post towns or towns and villages?
> b) how to rag remaining information (respectively, towns and villages or post
> towns,)
>
> 2. Tagging addresses within campuses, business parks etc. There is addr:place
> but it is supposed to be used instead of addr:street. Again, Robert has a
> fairly decent proposal for that using addr:place or addr:locality and
> addr:parentstreet. Please comment.
>
> 2a. should buildings in campuses be tagged with addr:buildingnumber/name or
> addr:unit? I would prefer buildingname/number (as they are often subdivided)
> but these seem to be associated with addr:street.
>
> 3. Similar to (2) but for buildings. Tagging buildings that have e.g. a
> single name but multiple house numbers?
>
> Best regards,
> ndrw6
>
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