House Numbering - Europe

Europe

Paris is said to have been the first city to introduce house numbering, on the Pont Notre-Dame in 1512.

In Europe the most common house numbering scheme is to number each plot on one side of the road with ascending odd numbers, from 1, and those on the other with ascending even numbers, from 2 or sometimes 0. The odd numbers are usually on the left side of the road, looking in the direction in which the numbers increase. Where additional buildings are inserted or subdivided, these are often suffixed a, b, etc. (in Spain and France, bis, ter, quater). Where buildings are later combined, they may use just one of the original numbers, combine them ("13/15"), or give their address as a range (e.g. "13‑17"; not to be construed as including the even numbers 14 and 16). Where some plots are not built upon, there may be considerable gaps in the numbering scheme. If a lot of buildings are later built along a stretch of the street, either a range of unused numbers above the current highest house number may be used, introducing confusing discontinuities, or the remainder of the street must be renumbered.

In Haarlem, Netherlands, red numbers are used for upstairs apartments.

In Venice, houses are numbered within districts known as sestieri, resulting in just six series for the entire city. In Genoa and in Florence houses are marked with black (sometimes also blue in Florence) numbers while businesses are usually (but not always) given red numbers, resulting in two distinct series for every street. The street numbers of businesses are denoted in writing (e.g., documents, online directories, etc.) by the addition of the letter "r" -- e.g., Via dei Servi 21r.

In Central and Eastern Europe, with the exceptions below, houses are typically numbered in the European style. Many streets, however, use the "boustrophedon" system described below.

• An example of new house numbering system in İstanbul, Turkey

• House number in Vienna

• An example of a Polish house number.

• Different aged house numbers in Venyov, Russia