Somewhere In Britain Screensaver
The Somewhere In Britain screensaver draws random UK postcodes with the geography attached — council, region and coordinates — from the Office for National Statistics postcode directory. Each draw is genuinely random, so the mix is a fair sample of where Britain's addresses actually are. It runs in the browser with nothing to install; press ESC to exit.
How the Somewhere In Britain screensaver works
The saver reads postcodes.io, which serves the ONS postcode directory free of charge.
No account and no key: the request goes straight from your browser, or from this site's own refreshed copy of the feed where the source does not allow browser access.
Values are drawn on a canvas that resizes with the window, so it works on a laptop or a wall display.
If the source is unreachable the saver says so on screen rather than showing stale numbers as though they were current.
A worked example
New postcodes arrive every few seconds at the top of the list and fade as they are pushed down, while a rough outline of Britain on the right plots each one, the newest brightest. Because the sample is fair rather than curated, the result is mostly not the places that get talked about — it is Somerset villages and Midlands suburbs, because that is where the addresses are.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display without changing the data.
- Add it to a Multi-view grid to watch it alongside other live savers.
- Press ESC at any time to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- How many UK postcodes are there?
- Roughly 1.7 million live postcodes, each covering an average of about fifteen addresses. The ONS directory maps every one to coordinates and to the administrative areas containing it.
- Is the map accurate?
- It is a rough projection of latitude and longitude onto a rectangle, good enough to show roughly where in Britain each postcode falls. It is a sketch for orientation, not a survey map.
- Is this real data?
- Yes. It comes from postcodes.io, which serves the ONS postcode directory free of charge. Nothing is invented or simulated, and if the source cannot be reached the saver reports that instead of drawing something plausible.
- Does it cost anything or need an account?
- No. Every screensaver here is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up. This one uses a public API that requires no key.