Get in the Back of the Van!: Dundee

Hi, reader

Hope you're keeping well and wrapped up warm. Shout out to my good friend Gareth in Wiltshire, who messaged me to say he's enjoying reading the blog every day. Gareth, if the icy grip of winter doesn't finish me off first, I'll definitely swing by Wiltshire to say hello when I finish touring Scotland. Hi also to Thea B, Humphrey F, Rob H, Richard B, Minerva, Justin T, Donna and Ayah.

I spent another day in Dundee and had fun tracking down more of the great statues and sculptures placed around the city. I'd already found my favourite, Oor Wullie, but there were lots more to see.

Statues and Sculptures

Let's begin with a closer look at Desperate Dan from The Dandy comic, which was published in Dundee. This bronze statue is pretty huge: 8 feet tall!

Dan is striding along the High Street, but his dog, 'Dawg', has braked to a halt.

What has caught Dawg's attention? Why, it's another comic character, Minnie the Minx (real name, Hermione Makepeace)! Minnie is a fan favourite from The Beano comic.

And what's that rolled up in Desperate Dan's hand? It's a copy of The Dandy of course!

One of Dundee's newest statues is of Bruin the Polar Bear, installed in the city centre in May 2021.

This statue depicts the terrifying moment a REAL polar bear escaped into Dundee High Street in 1878, throwing the entire city into chaos as residents ran for their lives.

The polar bear was one of two brought from Davis’ Straits by a local whaling ship and bought for exhibition in Commercial Street by a Mr Woods. Bruin escaped into the High Street whilst being transported from a cellar in Nethergate to a ‘show’ which has been erected on vacant space of ground in Commercial Street. Disaster was averted when Bruin, the hapless bear, caught sight of himself in a clothes shop mirror and stopped to admire his significant proportions. Eventually a noose was put round his neck and he was taken to safety.

Next up, Lemmings! One of the best received video games of the early 1990s, and a favourite of mine, was created right here in Dundee. Lemmings began life on the Amiga home computer and was later ported to other platforms. The game is estimated to have sold around 20 million copies worldwide.

This bronze tribute to the game shows three of the Lemmings characters scrambling up a wall and is located near the former DMA Design office where they were first created.

Back in the city centre is this bronze statue of a dragon, which kids love to climb on.

The Dragon is based on a local legend of the Nine Maidens, and it guards the east end of the High Street. Also in the city centre is this cheeky monkey, who is rearranging the letters on an information notice board.

The altered lettering reads 'in ma fair toon' (in my fair town), which is almost, but not quite, an anagram of 'information'.

Last but not least come the penguins. I found two groups of penguins in Dundee. There are four emperor penguins located at Dundee's waterfront near the RRS Discovery. The ship's first ever mission was to Antarctica – which just happens to be the home of the penguin. As a result of its successful mission (which saw the first sighting of an emperor penguin alongside extensive scientific research) the bird has become an important symbol of Dundee.

A second group of five penguins can be seen taking a single-file stroll on the wall at Dundee’s Steeple Church. Check this out:

And here they are all together. Enthusiastic members of the public often dress the penguins in knitted jumpers and for special occasions. They even have their own Facebook page.

RRS Discovery

The RRS Discovery is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built in Dundee for Antarctic scientific research. Launched in 1901, she was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom. Her first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, and highly successful, journey to the Antarctic, known as the Discovery Expedition.

Street Art

I'm a big fan of street art, and I loved collecting photos of the artwork I'd see around Bangkok when I lived there. Here's my Bangkok collection. Dundee has some outstanding street art, and I took these pictures of the best examples I found.

This one's pretty badass.

Comic fans will recognize Todd McFarlane's Spawn.

I like the bold colours on this one.

I'm not sure. Is this LL Cool J?

This is huge. It took up a whole wall.

A few more:

Some nice foreshortening on the hands.

The classic Karloff Frankenstein monster.

Dave Grohl! It's a Foo Fighters lyric.

Question: How does Christopher Walken pronounce Foo Fighters?

Answer: this link.

And I love the lighting effect on this using the blue, white, grey and black to create a kind of neon glow.

The V&A

By the time I got to the V&A Design Museum it was only about 40 minutes until closing time, so I didn't get a good look at all the exhibitions. I really enjoyed the Night Fever exhibit, exploring the relationship between design and night club culture from the 1960s to today. In particular, there was a great section on the evolution of UK rave and acid house in the 1990s.