Distance Between Two UK Postcodes

Type both postcodes straight into the Distance & Bearing tool's Point A and Point B fields — no need to convert them to coordinates first. GeoPinPoint resolves each postcode and returns the straight-line distance in miles and kilometres, plus the compass bearing from one to the other.

For example, SW1A 1AA (Westminster) to M1 1AE (central Manchester) comes back at roughly 163 miles as the crow flies — noticeably shorter than the ~200-mile driving route, since motorways rarely run in a straight line.

Straight-line by default — or switch to an actual driving, walking or cycling distance

By default this is the great-circle distance between the two points — the distance a bird would cover flying directly between them, not the distance you'd actually drive or walk. It's a genuinely useful quick filter for things like "is this customer within a 10-mile delivery radius?" or working out a rough catchment area, but it will always come back shorter than a real route, sometimes considerably so if there's a coastline, river, or motorway network in the way.

When the real route matters more than the quick straight-line check, the By Road options on the same tool switch to an actual routing engine — driving, walking or cycling — returning a genuine travel distance and time along real streets, with the route drawn on the map rather than just a straight line between the two points. Both postcodes work the same way for this as they do for the straight-line figure.

Why postcodes work directly, no coordinates needed

A UK postcode resolves to a single, specific point the same way a full address does, so there's no need to look up latitude and longitude separately first — Distance & Bearing handles that conversion itself. It also works the same way for full addresses or place names if you don't have a postcode to hand, so mixing a postcode in one box with a town name in the other works just as well.