OS Names API is a geographic directory giving you access to a straightforward, rapid lookup service: drilling down into the details we hold in our OS Open Names dataset.
This product is updated quarterly
The OS Names API uses the OS Open Names dataset, a gazetteer or directory hosting detailed information about 2.5 million identifiable places in Great Britain including postcodes, roads and settlements.
The API integrates with your own GIS or web and mobile based apps, the ‘find my nearest’ resource in OS Names API can make the results within customer facing applications more efficient.
OS Names API gives you access to detailed, searchable data – The details of nearly 44,000 individual settlements over 870,000 named and numbered roads and 1.7 million postcodes all matched/mapped to the National Grid.
The ‘find’ tool is a string-based lookup service, and the ‘nearest’ tool uses a pair of British National Grid (BNG) coordinates to return the nearest feature.
Technical information
You may be hunting for statistical data, analysing trends, or using details for purely consumer-oriented service. OS Names API also supports the discovery or identification and visualisation of a named place, geocoding, routing and navigation.
The API supports more than one name for places, including multilingual names (English/Welsh or English/Gaelic), for example, Cardiff (English) and Caerdydd (Welsh).
OS Names API won’t return a specific address in detail, or perform bulk searches. If you require address we recommend AddressBase or OS Places API.
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