diff --git a/app/src/search.js b/app/src/search.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..14f2ab1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/src/search.js
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+/**
+ * Search table access
+ * - to support navigation around the map
+ * - some separation from building attributes - here we might use other points of interest
+ *   or cues to broadly locate the user (postcode, borough name...)
+ * - this DOES expose geometry, another reason to keep this clearly separated from building
+ *   data
+ */
+import db from './db';
+
+function queryLocation(term){
+    const max_results = 5;
+    return db.manyOrNone(
+        `SELECT
+            search_str, search_class, ST_AsGeoJSON(center), zoom,
+            search_str <-> $1 AS dist
+        FROM
+            search_locations
+        ORDER BY
+            dist
+        LIMIT $2;`,
+        [term, max_results]
+    ).catch((error) => {
+        console.error(error);
+        return undefined;
+    });
+}
+
+export {
+    queryLocation
+};
diff --git a/app/src/server.js b/app/src/server.js
index 6f9cd7ed..51e1a250 100644
--- a/app/src/server.js
+++ b/app/src/server.js
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import {
     likeBuilding,
     unlikeBuilding
 } from './building';
+import { searchLocation, queryLocation } from './search';
 import tileserver from './tileserver';
 import { parseBuildingURL } from './parse';
 
@@ -393,4 +394,39 @@ server.post('/api/key', function(req, res){
     });
 })
 
+// GET search
+server.get('/search', function(req, res){
+    const search_term = req.query.q;
+    if (!search_term){
+        res.send({
+            error: 'Please provide a search term'
+        })
+        return
+    }
+    queryLocation(search_term).then((results) => {
+        if (typeof(results) === "undefined") {
+            res.send({
+                error: 'Database error'
+            })
+            return
+        }
+        res.send({
+            results: results.map(item => {
+                // map from DB results to GeoJSON Feature objects
+                const geom = JSON.parse(item.st_asgeojson)
+                return {
+                    type: 'Feature',
+                    attributes: {
+                        label: item.search_str,
+                        zoom: item.zoom || 9
+                    },
+                    geometry: geom
+                }
+            })
+        })
+    }).catch(function(error){
+        res.send(error);
+    });
+})
+
 export default server;