The iconic red postbox is to undergo its biggest facelift in its 175-year life. Royal Mail has announced the post-modern designs will include solar panels and scanners so they now accept parcels.

The postal service today (Wednesday, August 27) unveiled Britain's "postboxes of the future" which will start being used nationwide in the coming months, as part of its war against private couriers and drop-off lockers. They’re reminiscent of the original Victorian design, which allowed customers to send and received goods the size of a shoebox via a postbox for the first time.

A novel feature will let senders scan a barcode on the Royal Mail app which tells the postbox to open a swanky drop-down drawer, designed for parcels too big to fit through the traditional slot at the top. There will

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