If only all UK addresses were short like that one … 
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Chinese and russian adresses seem to be very long sometimes. One time, I draw an russian adress, which had 8 lines! Gladly, we can print out the adresses 
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Yes, I agree, the UK addresses usually are very long. Perhaps the longest addresses in Europe.
They have counties, districts, parishes, house names (yes, UK houses often have names instead of numbers… 
) and zip codes that look very exotic
And the Chinese addresses tend to be very long too.
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Not to forget Indian addresses. Once I got a 10-liner (my record at Postcrossing) and two or three times there were 9 lines.
For the 10-liner I chose a panoramic postcard otherwise the address would’ve been the only text
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I think this person was very scrupulous about his/her address
Actually the Russian mail delivery system is designed in such a way that any address can be reduced to a couple of lines and your letter will be delivered without any problem (does not always work anyway)
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The same can be done for UK addresses:
Person’s name
House number/postcode
UK
And that’s it. I wouldn’t risk it on a postcard though. Just in case. 
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I am very confident that if a card were sent to me as follows it wouid go through normally:
My Name
Apt (flat) number only, nothing else
Correct nine digit zip code
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Yes. And if it’s a long road, there will be different postcodes for different parts of it. Years ago, I did send something to myself using this method and it worked.
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It even works in Germany 
The official address of one of my husbands colleagues is:
Name
housenumber
zipcode (village)
The village were he lives is divided. The next “Weiler” (don’t know the English word) has the same village name but a different zipcode. In total there are 8 houses in three “Weiler” (3 different zipcodes, same village Name).
Infact it works also with:
housenumber
zipcode
but this could be a bit tricky if there’s a new mailman.
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I have seen German addresses with ‘OT: (place name)’ a few times.
I’ll try that next time.
“OT” means “Ortsteil” = urban district.
I think Weiler could be translated with hamlet?
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For Ireland you could technically address a card to the Eircode and country alone. Eircode is even more detailed than UK postcodes, ours goes down to the level of each single family house and each apartment. Each code is entirely unique. You also don’t need the recipient’s name for the card to arrive.
Happy to receive a card if anyone wants to try!
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In Canada, our postal codes is a specific block of houses generally and in most places you could simply write the name of the person and the postal code and it would most likely get to the person (even better add the house number and flat / apartment number). However, it is best if the actual addressing convention is maintained.
So basically:
Joe Smith
262
K1L 6C3
For K1L 6C3, which is my nearest post office inside the Jean Coutu Pharmacy - this is the only area that the specific postal code covers.
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I’d love to know how you get on!
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I’ll tell you! 
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When I moved into a new construction area and senders messed up my address, my postal worker told me this exact thing. The area later got re-zoned and now (even though we haven’t moved again) we’re in a different city, and the postal worker said the same - the city doesn’t even matter, it’s the zip.
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Super interesting! I love knowing a bit about how this stuff works.
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It definitely works.
I put this convention as the return address on, say, overseas Christmas cards. A couple of years I’ ve had one returned as the person had moved.
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Yes, I always do my return address like this. It saves a lot of writing. Though, so far (and it’s been for years now), nothing has ever been returned.