The dream of kids of all ages, from all over the UK and beyond, has finally come true. Thanks to a collaboration between The Courier’s publisher DC Thomson and top designer Wayne Hemingway, Beanotown, the home of Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx and a host of cheeky characters, has been brought to life at the Southbank Centre in London, as part of their Festival of Neighbourhood.
Wayne, who co-founded iconic fashion label Red or Dead, and now runs design agency HemingwayDesign, designing projects from affordable housing to radios and garden sheds, says his core philosophy is aiming to ‘improve things that matter in life’. He took up the Beanotown story: “Everything came together in an amazing piece of synchronicity. I loved The Beano as a child and it’s great that it has always appealed to both boys and girls.
“I have designed a few spaces for the Southbank in the past and I am currently working with The Beano on a collection for their 75th anniversary this year. DC Thomson worked with the Southbank last year when they produced their live musical The Trial of Dennis the Menace. So all the links were in place and it was just a question of joining it all up. The Festival of Neighbourhood at the Southbank Centre seemed the obvious place to celebrate the Beano’s neighbourhood and so Beanotown was born.”
The 3-D town, which opens on May 28, will cover a vast area, including a street called Bash Street, and will be home to all sorts of surprises. Although the project is still largely under wraps as painters, carpenters and electricians beaver away, Wayne was able to give us a sneak preview: “It’s a pretty big space and will be inside as well as outdoors, with life-size buildings furnished with items covered in decoupage from old comics.
“It’s located in an area of the Southbank called the Festival Village, spilling out on to one of the entrances to the Festival Hall, and running almost to the edge of the Thames. It’s safe to say that the festival site is one of the most popular spaces in London and Beanotown will be one of its main highlights.”
Beanotown will encompass all kinds of exciting elements, places to visit and interactive workshops. “I’m very excited about the cafe in particular I can’t say too much about it at this stage but all sorts of fun will be had with alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails all based on the cheekiness of The Beano!” smiled Wayne.
“In the museum and curatorial quarter of Beanotown visitors can see the history of the art of The Beano DC Thomson have kept absolutely everything since the comic first started 75 years ago and that is very rare and it’s the first time the archives have been brought out to the public. Did you know, for example, that the Beano artists were on Goebbels’ hit list during the war because they took the mickey out of Hitler?
“And we also have a lot of film footage of past Beano artists whose stories have never been told before.”
One area that is bound to be a roaring success is Prankyou Very Much bringing together 75 pranks for 75 years, there will be interactive workshops to teach kids how to play innocent(ish) pranks on their parents.
There will also be classes to learn how to draw large-scale cartoons.
If it’s all getting too much for you then why not chill out on the giant whoopee cushions and read a few copies of The Beano? Or you could head to the old school tuck shop or the social club where drinks like Vimto, Dandelion and Burdock and Irn Bru will be available, and fun and games including Table Dennis will be on offer.
Tim Collins, head of brands at DC Thomson, said: “About a year ago we felt The Beano needed a new direction and after considering many designers approached Wayne. We wanted someone really creative with a track record of taking established brands and re-packaging them for a contemporary audience. We felt Wayne was also very candid and pro-British and would be perfect to design new merchandise and products for The Beano.
“I worked with the Southbank last year on the Beano musical and wondered if we could do something bigger for the 75th anniversary this year. After discussions with the Southbank and Wayne, the Beanotown idea was born. We have worked together very closely since then, deconstructing the comic to make it relevant for a new generation of readers and to create a pop-up version of Beanotown.
“There are over seven million visitors to the Southbank over the summer and it’s great to have Beanotown in one of London’s biggest cultural hubs. Beanotown is our showcase to show the world that The Beano is not just about the past it’s very much about the future too.”
If you’re not planning to head down to London this summer, the good news for Scottish fans of The Beano is that elements of Beanotown will be brought to the Vintage Festival, Glasgow, as part of the Merchant City Festival from July 27-28.
And if you’d like to meet Wayne and find out more about how he became a business guru, he will be appearing at the Dalhousie Building in Dundee on May 16 from 6pm-8pm to give a lecture for the launch of Design in Action, a new knowledge exchange hub for the creative industries in Scotland based in Dundee.
The project will eventually have a base in the V&A at Dundee where it will show examples of how design is working across society.
Wayne said: “I’ll be talking about working in creative design and what’s it’s like starting out all the ups and downs. I love what I do but more importantly creative design generates more than £50 billion for the British economy.”