[Talk-GB] OSM UK address project: tags

[Mark Goodge]

On 21/12/2021 16:03, Rob Nickerson wrote:

> One of the challenges we have is making sure that the right part of the 
> address is assigned to the right addr:* tag in OpenStreetMap. We have 
> therefore been studying the address tags and how they are used in the 
> UK. Suffice to say it is not straightforward and without its 
> inconsistencies. I have therefore produced the following wiki page to 
> help other mappers understand the soup of available tags and which are 
> better / worse to use.

I think part of the problem is that OSM has made the mistake of thinking 
that postal addresses worldwide can all be handled within the same data 
structure. In reality, they can't. Postal addresses (as opposed to 
geographical addresses) are a function of the local postal system, and 
need to be formatted and stored appropriately.

Ideally, for UK addresses, what we need are not addr:* tags but a set of 
addr:uk:* tags that follow the conventions already established by Royal 
Mail. We don't have to use the same terminology (in fact, it's probably 
better if we don't), but we do need to be able to store addresses in a 
compatible structure.

Mark