A familiar red post box on Burnaby Street SW10 has been wrapped up and marked for replacement as Royal Mail’s new wave of ‘postboxes of the future’ begins its advance into Kensington and Chelsea.
They will include a built-in barcode scanner that unlocks a drop-down drawer for parcels too large for a traditional slot, allowing customers to send packages, up to the size of a shoebox.
The creepy looking post box in Burnaby Street wrapped in plastic
The biggest redesign in the 175-year history of the iconic red postbox was announced in April, and 3,500 are planned to be introduced nationwide over the coming months
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Our postbox of the future will offer another convenient way for customers to access Royal Mail’s services, alongside home delivery and collection, our Customer Service Points, Post Office branches, lockers and Royal Mail Shop outlets. We’re pleased to see positive feedback from customers in areas where the new postboxes have already been introduced, and we’re hopeful that residents will find the upgraded postbox just as useful and convenient.”
A ‘postbox of the future’ in Northborough © Paul Bryan
As letter volumes decline and parcel shipments surge, the new postboxes could give Royal Mail an edge in the booming second-hand market, fuelled by apps like Vinted.
The substitutions for the more automated postboxes also come less than two months after Royal Mail was fined £21 million by Ofcom for missing delivery targets for first- and second-class mail.
