OS Open Names

OS Open Names is a comprehensive dataset of place names, roads numbers and postcodes for Great Britain.

  • Addressing and location
  • Download
  • Energy & Infrastructure Plan
  • OS OpenData Plan (FREE)
  • Premium Plan
  • Public Sector Plan

This product is updated quarterly

Representation of data provided
Representation of data provided
© Crown copyright and database rights. Ordnance Survey 2024

What OS Open Names provides you with

Accurate locations of streets and postcodes

Let your customer-facing staff find places quickly when talking to callers. OS Open Names provides the accurate locations of streets and postcodes in Great Britain.

Place name data

Quickly look up places and roads with two names. OS Open Names contains place name data in English and their Welsh, Scots or Gaelic alternatives.

Comprehensive National Grid data

OS Open Names contains over 870,000 named and numbered roads, nearly 44,000 settlements and over 1.6 million postcodes, all matched/mapped to the National Grid.

OS Open Names

Technical information

© Crown copyright and database rights. Ordnance Survey 2024

Specifications

Access
  • Download
Data theme
  • Administrative and Statistical Units
  • Geographical Names
  • Transport
Data structure
Vector
Coverage
Great Britain
Scale
1:1250 to 1:10,000
Format
  • CSV
  • GML 3.2.1
  • GeoPackage
Ordering area
  • All of Great Britain
Publication months
  • January
  • April
  • July
  • October
OS Data Hub plan
  • Energy & Infrastructure Plan
  • OS OpenData Plan (FREE)
  • Premium Plan
  • Public Sector Plan

Documents and Support

Getting started guides

  • OS Open Names - Getting started guide
    The getting started guide provides instructions for using the product in different software applications. Users with limited technical knowledge will be able to follow this guide.
    pdf
    v2.0
    2.2 mb
    February 1, 2023
  • Getting started with GeoPackage
    This guide helps you to get started using GeoPackage - a lightweight format that can contain large amounts of complex data in a single, easy to distribute and ready to use file.
    pdf
    v2
    1.11 mb
    September 30, 2021

Technical specification

  • OS Open Names – Technical specification
    The technical specification provides detailed technical information about the product. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.
    pdf
    v2.2
    653 kb
    February 1, 2023

Supporting documents

Release notes

Additional information

OS Open Names level of detail

OS Open Names doesn’t go down to the level of locations of individual houses, but it does show the location of roads. It also tells your GIS how far to zoom out to show the full length of your street. For property locations, you will need one of the OS AddressBase products.

Need complete addresses?

If your work requires the full postal address, we recommend AddressBase products.

OS Open Names

Get this product

What you get

Key features
  • Accurate locations of streets and postcodes
  • Place name data
  • Comprehensive National Grid data
Category
Addressing and location
Access
  • Download
Data structure
Vector
Update frequency
Quarterly

How to access

OS OpenData is free

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Further support

For further help about how our data can transform your organisation, contact us today

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