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02/11/2020

Press release: Royal Mail reveals the nation’s spookiest street and house names

  • With Halloween almost upon us, new research from Royal Mail delves into how the positively cadaverous has inspired the naming of the nation’s addresses. Nearly 3,000 of the UK’s streets and houses sport a spooky or supernatural-themed name.
  • Analysis of over 30 million addresses across the UK shows that 748 towns and cities are home to at least one scary street and house name. Aside from London, historic cities Norwich and York have the highest concentration of morbid monikers.
  • Towns and cities steeped in history, including Ipswich, Hereford and Canterbury, generally have the highest number of named addresses inspired by the macabre.
  • The word ‘Cemetery’ appears in over 800 addresses nationwide, making it the most popular ‘spooky’ themed term. For example, there are nearly 300 ‘Cemetery Roads’ across the nation. Addresses linked to ‘Owls’ (757 addresses) and ‘Cobwebs’ (304) closely follow.
  • Some of the more outlandish spooky-themed addresses include ‘Vampire Road’ in Louth, Lincolnshire and ‘Creepy Cottage’ near Sheffield.

From ‘Cackle Cottage’ to ‘Wizard Way’, Royal Mail today reveals the nation’s street and house names inspired by all things macabre.

To mark Halloween, the Company analysed its Address Management Unit, which covers over 30 million addresses, for spooky themed entries. Royal Mail has built up this monstrous insight by delivering mail to 30 million addresses across the UK.

Nearly 3,000 streets and houses spread across 748 individual towns and cities across the UK boast a scary name.

‘Cemetery’ is the most popular term for morbid monikers, appearing in over 800 addresses nationwide. Properties linked to ‘Owls’, ‘Cobwebs’, ‘Dark’ (230 addresses) and ‘Hanging’ (122) closely follow.

From ‘Pumpkin Towers’ near Hereford, to ‘Cobwebs Court’ near Canterbury, places with a strong historical link tend to have a higher concentration of spooky-themed street and house names. Overall, Suffolk (50 addresses) is the county with the largest number of related addresses.

The UK’s Spookiest Towns & Cities, By Address:

  1. London (62)
  2. Norwich (40)
  3. York (39)
  4. Bristol (36)
  5. Manchester (28)
  6. Reading (24)
  7. Ipswich, Suffolk (22)
  8. Doncaster, Yorkshire (19)
  9. Hereford (18)
  10. Boston, Lincolnshire (17)
  11. Southampton (17)
  12. Chesterfield, Derbyshire (17)
  13. Chichester, West Sussex (16)
  14. Ashford, Kent (14)
  15. Salisbury, Wiltshire (13)
  16. Taunton, Somerset (13)
  17. Diss, Norfolk (13)
  18. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk (12)
  19. Bridgwater, Somerset (11)
  20. Canterbury, Kent (11)

Some of the more outlandish names that arose from the research include ‘Cackle Cottage’ in South East England, ‘Goblin Farm’ in Wales and ‘Bleeding Wolf Lane’ near Stoke-On-Trent.

Steve Rooney, Head of Royal Mail Address Management Unit, commented: “Named addresses are very often inspired by national or local history, so as a nation fascinated by the macabre, it is perhaps unsurprising that terms linked to this feature so highly in our research.”

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