WFS

The Service
The OSM-GB provides Web Feature Service (WFS) according to Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard. This can serve vector output of the OSM-GB datasets through HTTP requests and responses.
 * The URL of the WFS (to be used in GIS applications) is  http://www.osmgb.org.uk/ogc/wfs 
 * The URL of the WFS' GetCapabilities request is http://www.osmgb.org.uk/ogc/wfs?request=GetCapabilities

The WFS currently serves the following 8 vector layers:
 * Points4326: All point features in Lat/Long format (EPSG:4326).
 * Points27700: All point features in British National Grid format (EPSG:27700).
 * Polygons4326: All polygon features in Lat/Long format (EPSG:4326).
 * Polygons27700: All polygon features in British National Grid format (EPSG:27700).
 * Lines4326: All line features (roads or any other line) in Lat/Long format (EPSG:4326).
 * Lines27700: All line features (roads or any other line) in British National Grid format (EPSG:27700).
 * Roads4326: A subset of Lines4326 which includes only the main roads - suitable for lower zoom levels.
 * Roads27700: A subset of Lines27700 which includes only the main roads - suitable for lower zoom levels.

A sample request: http://www.osmgb.org.uk/ogc/wfs?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetFeature&TYPENAME=OSM-GB-Vector:Roads27700&SRSNAME=EPSG:27700&BBOX=447901.707808,337571.014355,453015.418400,341833.260141

Please note that the number of features are huge if no bounding box or filter is applied, which can make a GIS application unstable (around 1.1 million points, 2.8 million lines and 1.8 million polygons so far). So it is not recommended to make a no-filter request. Instructions for QGIS and MapInfo are provided below.

The WFS supports textual/vector output in any of the following formats: GML 2, GML 3.1, GML 3.2, GeoJSON, ShapeFile and CSV.

GIS Applications
QGIS and Mapinfo are the current tested GIS applications.


 * QGIS users: First zoom to the interested area in a base maps, then add WFS layer having "Only request features overlapping the current view extend" checked. A working QGIS project is available here(to be used in QGIS 1.7.4 and above). Note that the "Only request features overlapping the current view extend" feature disappeared in the 1.80 build which makes loading of WFS layers very slow unless you add the bounding box request within your calling URL - it may be worth staying with 1.7.4 until this is resolved.
 * MapInfo users: When the interested area in zoomed on the base map, open WFS layer having a "Row Filter" selected. To do this, in "Open WFS" window, click on the interested WFS layer (having the same SRS as the base map), then press "Row Filter". In the next window, select "way" for "Column", "ogc:bbox" for the "Operator" and "Current Mapper" for the "Value" drop-down menus. Press "OK" twice to add the WFS layer. Use this working project (tested under version 11.5).