Harry Metcalfe and Richard Pope recently let us know about their new postcode lookup API, named after Ernest Marples, the Postmaster General who introduced the Postcode:

• http://ernestmarples.com/

More about the service:

Post codes are really useful, but the powers that be keep them closed unless you have loads of money to pay for them. Which makes it hard to build useful websites (and that makes Ernest sad).

So we are setting them free and using them to run PlanningAlerts.com and Jobcentre Pro Plus. We’re doing the same as everyone’s being doing for years, but just being open about it.

There are now several free sources of UK postcode data – including New Popular Edition Maps and Free the Postcode. For other sources of postcode data elsewhere in the world, see:

• http://ckan.net/tag/read/postcode

If you know of any other postcode-related open datasets, we’d love to hear about them!

Related posts:

1. PlanningAlerts.com — Opening up UK Planning Application Data Back at the Civic Info forum in November Richard Pope presented his initial work on scraping planning application data from local council websites. This was a classic case where the original providers of the data did not make it available...
2. CKAN package party and general online meetup: Saturday 16th May 2009 We’re planning another CKAN package party + general OKFN online meetup for Saturday 16th of May. It’s a general meetup but with a focus on CKAN packaging so feel free to come and chat about anything open knowledge related —...