OS Open Names Documentation

Here you will find all documentation for the OS Open Names product.

OS Open Names is a comprehensive dataset of place names, roads numbers and postcodes for Great Britain. The data contains accurate and current settlement names, road names and numbers, postcodes and their locations, with additional contextual information and links to other datasets.

This product is updated quarterly in January, April, July, October.

A representation of OS Open Names data against a background map

Benefits

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.

Use Cases

OS Open Names can be used across all sectors of industry for a wide variety of purposes. Primarily, it can be used to identify and locate named places; however, when combined with other OS products, the range of uses for the product increases.

The Product applications page lists a range of use cases for the product.

Summary

• Access: Download via the OS Data Hub

• Data themes: Administrative and Statistical Units, Geographical Names, Transport

• Data structure: Vector

• Coverage: Great Britain

• Scale: 1:1 250 to 1:10 000

• Format: CSV, GML 3.2.1, GeoPackage

• Ordering area: All of Great Britain

• Publication months: January, April, July, October

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 AddressBase products.

Need complete addresses?

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

How to get this product

Access to this OS OpenData product is free through the OS Data Hub.

Sample data

Visualise OS Open Names sample data online

This product is available to try out free online using one of our three sets of sample data (Exeter, Newport and Inverness) through the OS MasterMap Product Viewer:

OS MasterMap Product Viewer

Interactive demonstrator of OS MasterMap Generation data

What's next?

To access additional documentation and resources relating to this product, please refer to the following:

Overview

The overview introduces OS Open Names and gives context for all users – highlighting key features, providing examples of potential uses, and listing details such as file sizes, supply formats, etc.

Getting Started Guide

The getting started guide provides instructions for using OS Open Names in different software applications. Users with limited technical knowledge will be able to follow this guide.

Technical Specification

The technical specification provides detailed technical information about OS Open Names. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.

Downloads

The downloads page provides links and resources to support the application of OS Open Names within your environment.

Ordnance Survey Website

View OS Open Names product information and find out how to get this product on the OS website.

New users should start with the Overview to gain high-level insight into the product. The Getting Started Guide will help you to begin using product data in different software systems. The Technical Specification contains detailed technical insights.