House Numbers

[foxhaven]

Not sure what catergory to put this under really but here goes --- when/why were house numbers arranged oddly, instead of just following on ?

[Old_Geezer]

Are they arranged oddly ? Even numbers one side of the street, odd numbers the other side ?

[Zacs-Master]

And the numbers go up from the post office (or did, originally).

[emeritus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_numbering

[gingejbee]

Presumably when some bright-spark noticed that streets had two sides....and that it would make sense to have lower numbers at one end increasing as you progressed along it?

[foxhaven]

Thanks - you lot are so quick- how do you d it ?

[aelmpvw]

they probably work for the post office

[foxhaven]

I looked on that link but it doesn't really explain why it was decided to number houses alternately.

[EDDIE51]

What alternate would you suggest? It would be a lot more difficult if the numbers went up one side and back down the other. Number 4 would be opposite number 79 or 102 for example. People understand the odd on one side and even on the other system. Common sense to me if you are looking for number 15 you know it is opposite number 14, makes finding an address a lot easier.

[foxhaven]

Eddie51 - I'm not saying it's wrong or that there is a better alternative, I just wondered [and now I wish I hadn't] when it started and who instigated it.

[B00]

Maybe because it helps to figure out which side of a road/street a particular house is on?

[EDDIE51]

As said in the beginning the numbers started from the post office. The nearest house was no1 the next nearest was no 2 and so on.That meant that the numbers went up as you got further from the post office, so they had to alternate on each side of the road.

[Boto]

Walking order. Usually (but not always) odd numbers on left hand side of street (starting from no. 1).

[jno]

the Duke of Wellington's house used to be Number One, London. I wonder who had number Two.

But some streets do number consecutively along one side and back the other. It isn't all that inconvenient as you can quickly see where you are. The really annoying streets are the erratic ones. In ours, 59 is opposite 82.

[ivor4781]

foxhaven
why wonder about it at all it just makes sense there organised like that

[follyfancier]

we nearly always get post for the wrong numbers either 1 up or 1 down from our own number because the road is actually a cul de sac and the postman assumes that all the evens will be on one side when in fact they are numbered consecutively

[stuey]

Most of our cities, towns, and villages have streets arranged in a sort of grid pattern. In general, even numbers are assigned to the north and west sides, while odd numbers are assigned to south and east sides.

[maggiebee]

Remember new houses being built in Dundee when I was at primary school. Was friends with the girls who lived at 15 Menzieshill Road. There was no number 13 because their parents wouldn't buy it, so it was just missed out.