CLEARANCE TOOLKIT > EXPLAINERS

Building Fictional (but Believable) Addresses

For Set Dressing and Props in Film & TV

Fictional addresses are essential for worldbuilding in film and TV. Whether it’s the hero’s home address, a fake gardening service flyer stuck on a fridge, or something more sinister—like the hideout of a criminal—you want to be sure you’re not accidentally using a real address.

The risk increases when an address is tied to something incriminating or controversial, but even for minor details, it’s important to ensure that no real-world location is unintentionally featured.

Striking the right balance between realism and fiction can be tricky. Some productions use real but low risk public locations like parks, empty lots, or rural areas to ensure the address isn’t linked to any people or business. However, you're much safer creating an address that is entirely fictional—at every level. That way, whether it appears on a pizza delivery menu or ends up as the home of a villain, you’re covered. You never know which production may go onto be a cult hit - resulting in hundreds of fans on pilgrimages to a new residential estate that used to be parking lot back in the day.

How to Construct a Fictional Address

Addresses typically have five key elements -

House Name or Number (or both)
Street Name
City or Town
Country
Postcode

You'll need to make at least two of these completely fictional but if you can ensure three or four aren't real, then that gives an extra layer of protection.

1. House Number

A fictional door number is one to always aim for if you can. Sometimes the team may want to see the real door number at a particular location - particularly if its difficult to cover up. Always check with your location team on this.

If there's no pressure to use a real door number but there are worries about the street being otherwise recognisable (due to the style of house or other landmarks) then the best approach is to research the highest door number on the street and add another 10 or 20 to make sure you have a wide birth - Google Maps is great for this and then it can be verified with the Royal Mail address finder or the USPS Zipcode lookup. There are lots of equivalent registers for most countries but for this guide I'll focus on the UK and the US.

2. Street Name

This is one of the most recognisable parts of the address so as much as possible we would push for this to be a fictional street name. There's a few methods for this - including generating your own. Mythology, Nature and Historical Figures are all great sources of plausible street names that are not currently in use - again you'll need to check them with your Neg Checker or if you don't have one then use Google Maps and Royal Mail or USPS

In case you're stuck, here's a few fictional street names to get started (last checked Feb 2025)

Fictional Street Names in Britain

Gleeman Street
Lunting Road
Apricity Street
Bramblethatch Lane
Tattershaw Road

Fictional Street Names in USA

Duskwillow Drive
Moonlark Avenue
Hollowfern Lane
Thistlewick Road
Snickerdoodle Way

3. City or Town

Often this is fixed and trying to work in a fictional town would break the illusion of authenticity. The story will usually be firmly set in Cardiff or London or New York but you may have some flexibility with the suburb /village name within that larger city. When the city is firmly part of the story we will always work to make sure the other parts of the address (door number, street name and postcodes) are fictional.

In case you're stuck, here's a few suburb/town names to use that are fictional in the US and England - including a couple that imply locations in Wales & Scotland.

You can locate these fictional towns more solidly to a particular UK region by adding a local river to the na§me i.e "Forwether on Severn" for Gloucestershire or "Forwether on Trent" for Midlands

Fictional Town Names in Britain

Forwether
Wassail
Attercop
Drighten
Eddlebury
Pendrick Hollow
Moelcraig
Lochmarnock
Osswick

Fictional Town Names in USA

Wolfspruce
Hazelburg
Meadowvine
Marrowfield
Copperstill
Ashenford
Graytide Valley
Briar Junction
Driftshade

4. Country

This is another on that will usually be impossible to change. The are large enough and generic enough that it doesn't usually cause issue. Its good to double check the conventions of the country addresses -

It's handy to remember that even something as simple as a door number changes in different countries - e.g., 2945 wouldn't be unusual in north America but would numbers would rarely be seen that high in Britain.

5. Postcodes & Zipcodes

These are an interesting one - being incredibly specific in the small area each one identifies while also being highly recognisable. Everyone knows Londons' West end is WC1 and the City of London is EC1. This is where you'll need to channel your code breaking skill to understand the rules for generating postcodes and use that knowledge to break them.

If you don't have time to channel your inner Alan Turing then just remember -

Fictional British Postcodes

The second half of the postcode is always consistent numeric, alpha, alpha format and the letters C, I, K, M, O and V are never used therefore the following will always clear with any real postcode eg SE1 followed by the following second parts:

Fictional US Zip Codes

The following prefixes are not currently in use in the US so using them will keep your Zip codes clear

Location Agreement

Sometimes the location release has given permission to use the real address. It’s important to check this one with your location manager and lawyer to make sure that it is actually covered in a fully executed release. It’s becoming more and more common for locations to ask for the specifics to be obscured - particularly as fans get more die hard.

Summary

By carefully crafting a believable but fictional address, you can avoid any unintended legal or ethical issues while keeping your world immersive and authentic.

This is just a guide and in most cases you should have a Neg Checker or Script Researcher to verify that an adress is clear.

Need more?

For more detail on locations, maps and making sure your locations aren't revealling anything risky - try these other guides.

How to clear Maps

Artworks at Locations

These links and suggestion may change over time. Always recheck the copyright status with your lawyer or clearance person. This page was last updated in April 2025

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