Genealogy Chat

Just found an interesting entry in an 1870 diary. Will put in as reply to make it clearer...

There have been threads on this topic before, but I couldn't think of the right heading to pull them up with the thread search. Street numbering hasn't been constant over the years. There's a bit on teh MedwayCityArk site about the dates their streets were re-numbered, for instance. But I thought this was very revealing, given the current (usual) conventions for street numbers in UK... from an 1870 diary of an Englishman travelling to USA: ''The houses are numbered like all American cities, even numbers one side and odd numbers the other side of the street which is a decided improvement on going up one side & down the other.'' Christine

You need to be careful in some parts of Coventry where numbers still go consecutively up one side of the street and down the other...and some used to but have been renumbered in a more conventional way. Sheila

It makes it tricky if you're trying to get a photo of the place where your ancestors lived! Christine

Just thought I'd add............In England the odd numbers should always be on the left side of the street and even numbers on the right

Jean - don't quite see that. Won't it depend on which end of the road you start from whether they are on the left or the right? Tina

I think Jean means if you are standing at the end of the street where the numbers begin, facing up the street towards the big numbers, number 1 will be on your left and number 2 on your right. Kate.

Yes sorry...forgot to say standing at the lowest numbers or start of the street.. it sometime comes in handy to know if you are looking for a house in the dark

Be aware that if it's a Close then the numbers may be consecutive, Confuses the Hell out of white van drivers in our road. Lol.

I think the numbers are supposed to work outward from the town centre - or from the post office. Christine

Yes I was always told that the lowest number is the one nearest to the town hall. Mind you doesn't help when they change the name of the streets which has happened on a few of my towns streets, also having a east and west then changing just to one name. Having trouble now finding exactly where my Granny lived. Germaine x

I used to do house to house calling......yes the numbers commence from the end of the road nearest the town and odd numbers are on the left.................there are those that are consecutive and can cause a lot more walking..............25A should come after 25...but I do remember putting up TV aerial on the wrong chimney and house...some silly s-d had put the 25a before 25.. ..so there are always exceptions

Well, thinking of the streets where I have lived... sometimes the odd numbers are on the left and even on the right. sometimes the numbers are consecutive up one side of the street and down the other sometimes extra dwellings have been added with A, B, C etc added on sometimes no. 13 has been left out and of course, houses, streets and roads could all be renumbered. nell

If its a Victorian london road though, you can probably find it listed in Kelly's Directory. The FRC has a number of Kellys, around the time of the censuses. You can find a road and it will have the numbers and what is there, as well as indicating where another street intersects. It's quite helpful to work out where a specific building was. I had a bit of a puzzle with my gt grandparents, who lived at 13 Hornsey Road (roughly where the new Arsenal Stadium is now). I had a birth cert for their 2nd child, who was born at Ingram Place, but died just 5 weeks later, at 13 Hornsey Road. I checked in Kellys and the parade of houses including no. 13 was called Ingram Place. nell

I went to look at GGFx3 house (last one he lived in 1861). Got the number, should be a doddle - nope its not there. No houses have been demolished in the village and the row of terrace houses are still there but they have been renumbered - with modern houses on the other side and a library built up the road. So I guess I will never know which was his.