History UsefulNotes / BritishPostalAndTelephoneSystem

A bit about posting letters and making phone calls in the UK.

09 numbers are premium rate (the British version of the UsefulNotes/NineHundredNumber) and are usually for sex chat lines or competitions.

Postboxes are red, and come in a variety of styles and sizes, with the collection times printed on them. They are sometimes embedded into walls, often in more rural areas. "C III R" is molded onto the front of postboxes for "Charles III Rex" and show they have been erected in the reign of King Charles III. There are still some about with other royal initials (particularly "E II R" for the long-reigned Queen Elizabeth II[[note]]except in Scotland as Elizabeth I predated (and was the cause of) the union of the crowns, thus Elizabeth II was the first Scottish queen with that name. An agreement was reached to not use her royal cipher on Scottish postboxes during her reign.[[/note]], indicating under which monarch they were installed, going back as far as Queen Victoria, with the rarest initials being of King Edward VIII due to his short reign.

The United Kingdom has one of the world's oldest postal systems, going back to the 17th century, and introduced the postage stamp in 1840. The postage stamps also feature the head of the monarch in some form, leading to jokes about licking the back of Her Majesty's head (these days, they're pre-adhesive). The name of the nation is not on the stamps, which is unique, due to Britain being the nation that pioneered the philatelic system (use of stamps). Official Christmas stamps also come out in December: the Royal Mail has a system of using religious-themed stamps and secular wintry images on alternating years. Of course, this does not stop the press starting an uproar ''every time'' a secular-themed year comes up.

Postboxes are red, and come in a variety of styles and sizes, with the collection times printed on them. They are sometimes embedded into walls, often in more rural areas. "E II R" on the front of postboxes for "Elizabeth II Regina" [[note]]except in Scotland as the current Queen Elizabeth is the first to reign over Scotland with that name, the other predated (and was the cause of) the union of the crowns[[/note]] and show they have been erected in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. There are still some about with other royal initials, indicating under which monarch they were installed, going back as far as Queen Victoria, with the rarest initials being of King Edward VIII due to his short reign.

Most numbers begin 01 (all landline numbers got 1 added to them in 1994 when the UK phone system was shaken).

Outside London, the format is slightly different: A two-letter code denotes the region, with some combination of letters taken from the name of the county seat and/or largest local city, followed by a number denoting the town. For example, an address in Northampton would have a postcode beginning with NN, with Northampton town itself covering [=NN1=], [=NN2=], [=NN3=], [=NN4=], and [=NN5=], with towns, and villages outside of Northampton having increasingly higher numbers. For example, Kettering has postcodes [=NN14=], [=NN15=], and [=NN16=]. Each set of numbers designating a part of Kettering or one of the villages that are delivered from the office in Kettering.

999 is the emergency number, but the European-wide 112 will also work; North America, however, uses 911. 911 was eventually set to redirect to 999, having been introduced later than the other numbers due to studies showing some people had [[EaglelandOsmosis obviously been watching too much American television.]] All three will work off of mobile phones, as most software manufacturers program this feature in so the phones will work across more than one nation.

One postcode that has a degree of recognition even outside the UK is "SW19", covering the Wimbledon district of London. Yes, ''[[UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}} that]]'' UsefulNotes/{{Wimbledon}}. Outside of the UK, especially among tennis fans in the States, any reference to "SW19" will most likely be to the tennis tournament.

* 01234 - Bedford. Which has the amusing result that dialling 01234567890 will indeed connect you to someone who wishes it didn't.
* 0141- Glasgow
* 01632- FiveFiveFive version for the United Kingdom, with [[http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/numbers/num_drama numbers in specific ranges for other codes]].
* 020- London (or most of that area). London's phone code has altered a fair bit. Until 1990 it was 01. It was then split into 071 (Inner London) and 081 (Outer London). 1994 saw them become 0171 and 0181. In 2001, these numbers were merged to become the new 020 code (to increase capacity), with 0171 numbers becoming 020 7 and 0181 becoming 020 8. However, many people still write them as 0207 and 0208, which caused confusion when 0203 numbers arrived.
* 028- all of [[UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland StrokeCountry]]
* 029- Cardiff

* [=BT=] (The largest telephone service provider) no longer charges for these, but others such as the mobile companies, or Virgin Media do.

111 will put you through to 'NHS 111' non-emergency medical queries service (formerly known as NHS direct), which has been heavily promoted recently in the hope that people will stop calling abulances for something trivial. Results have been mixed, as there's not much middle-ground between "tell the patient to make an appointment with their GP" and "send the patient to the emergency room to be on the safe side" outside of office hours and callcentre staff are understandably inclined to err on the side of caution.

09 numbers are premium rate (the British version of the UsefulNote/NineHundredNumber) and are usually for sex chat lines or competitions.

09 numbers are premium rate and are usually for sex chat lines or competitions.

Outside London, the format is slightly different: A two-letter code denotes the region, with some combination of letters taken from the name of the county seat and/or largest local city, followed by a number denoting the town. For example, an address in Northampton would have a postcode beginning with NN, with Northampton town itself covering NN1,NN2, NN3, NN4, and NN5, with towns, and villages outside of Northampton having increasingly higher numbers. For example, Kettering has postcodes NN14, NN15, and NN16. Each set of numbers designating a part of Kettering or one of the villages that are delivered from the office in Kettering.

Postboxes are red, and come in a variety of shapes with the collection times printed on them. In more rural areas, they are sometimes embedded into walls. "E II R" on the front of postboxes for "Elizabeth II Regina" [[note]]except in Scotland as the current Queen Elizabeth is the first to reign over Scotland with that name, the other predated (and was the cause of) the union of the crowns[[/note]] and show they have been erected in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. There are still some about with other royal initials, indicating under which monarch they were installed, going back as far as Queen Victoria, with the rarest initials being of King Edward VIII due to his short reign.

Anyone who is a fan of the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' series will know there's no post on Sunday. There is also no post on Good Friday, Easter Monday, and Bank Holidays.