Most of us were taught to write an address neatly in the centre of an envelope. Royal Mail would rather we did not.
The postal service has been reminding customers how to lay out an address so that its automated sorting machines can read it. Royal Mail handles about 6.6 billion letters a year and relies heavily on machines to sort them.
The rules, in brief
- Bottom left, not the middle. Write the recipient’s name and address in the bottom-left area of the envelope, left-aligned rather than centred or staggered.
- Skip the punctuation. Leave out commas and full stops in the address lines.
- Right order. Name first, then the property details, the town, and the postcode on its own line at the bottom. Town and postcode go in capitals.
- Going abroad? Put the destination country on the final line, in capitals.
- Dark on light. Use black ink on a white or light envelope. For coloured envelopes, stick on a white label. “It’s important that the address shows up against the colour of your envelope,” Royal Mail said.
- Leave space. Keep a clear border around the address.
The stamp matters too
Stamps belong in the top-right corner. If postage cannot be validated because a stamp is in the wrong place, the recipient may have to pay a surcharge of £1.50 to £7.
Protect your privacy
Do not write phone numbers or email addresses on the front. A return address belongs on the back, marked “return address”.
Not sure of a postcode?
Royal Mail’s free online Postcode Finder lets you look up addresses, with up to 50 searches allowed.
Further reading
Image: Royal Mail postbox in Eau Brink – geograph.org.uk – 3653011 by Mat Fascione, BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.
