Like many long-running UK comic strips, The Bash Street Kids is mostly frozen in the era when it began.

It portrays Class 2B of the Bash Street School in Beanotown, where the teacher and headmaster wear gowns and the pupils sit at wood desks with inkwells.

According to Leo Baxendale, "In fact, the catalyst for my creation of Bash Street was a Giles cartoon of January 1953: kids pouring out of school, heads flying off and sundry mayhems.

Straight away, I pencilled a drawing of 'The Kids of Bash Street School' and posted it from my home in Preston to R. D. Low, the managing editor of D.C. Thomson's children's publications in Dundee.

It was only after I'd created Little Plum (April 1953) and Minnie the Minx (September 1953) that the Beano editor George Moonie travelled to Preston on 20 October 1953 and asked me to go ahead with Bash Street (he gave it the provisional title of 'When The Bell Goes'; when it appeared in The Beano in February 1954, it was titled 'When The Bell Rings')."

Over time, the Bash Street School's large number of pupils slowly shrank to its trademark ten.

[6][7] In May 2021, the character "Fatty" was renamed "Freddy", in an attempt to stop children using the name as an insult for overweight peers.

Mandi previously had her own occasional strip that dealt with mental health issues to promote the charity YoungMinds, and as such her main trait is that she worries about things.

He is a central character in The Beano Interactive DVD with Dennis, Gnasher, Minnie the Minx and Roger the Dodger.

[12] 'Erbert is considered the least-mischievous student,[14] Beano Top Trumps – Erbert is least menacing of all Bash Street Kids and is said to resemble a human mole.

When he moves to the Bash Street Academy 'Erbert receives contact lenses to improve his sight, discarding them when he returns to his old school.

[16] He is a large, round boy who is always eating,[18] only in later strips is he ridiculed for his weight; he usually reacts by trying to prove the others wrong, but earlier he is indifferent.

Although he is usually the only student able to eat school cook Olive's meals without incident, in the 2009 annual her curry makes him ill. Freddy has several stories about him in the Beano Library series.

Until mid-May 2021, he was nicknamed "Fatty", but was renamed "Freddy" in an attempt to stop children using the name as an insult for overweight peers.

[19] He is a lanky, gangling character with a large overbite, protruding ears, two buck teeth and a wide nose.

[22] Despite, or perhaps because of his appearance Plug is one of the more sympathetic Bash Street Kids, often ready to defend those he feels have been unjustly treated; he once calms Danny down after he loses patience with Smiffy's stupidity.

He has on one occasion fainted from seeing his own reflection (after polishing the handles of Teacher's bicycle), and considers himself the most handsome boy in Beanotown.

Plug had his own comic from 1977 to 1979 featuring him and his two pets (Pug from Pup Parade and Chunkee the Monkey),[23] and was the first Beano character with a spin-off.

However, in earlier strips his father was shown to be quite handsome (to the confusion of the other kids) and Plug is described as taking after his mother in appearance.

[25] Although Plug received plastic surgery for the Bash Street Academy makeover, he soon returned to his familiar appearance.

When Toots takes advantage of her power, Dennis announces that she cannot boss him around and she puts him in a makeshift prison tower (quickly populated by other Beano characters and the rest of the kids).

[34] Wilfrid John Wimble[37] is the smallest and quietest of the Bash Street Kids, and has social anxiety, his thoughts hidden behind a green jumper going up to his nose.

Cuthbert Jason Cringeworthy, the brightest student in the class, is a teacher's pet and has a name for every letter of the alphabet.

Mandi, full name Mandira Sharma, another British girl of Indian descent,[39] also joined Class 2B in June 2021.

She previously had her own occasional strip that dealt with mental health issues to promote a charity, and as such her main trait is that she worries about things.

In the early years, there were an indeterminate number of students; one page had 28, including: The characters appeared in one-page stories (not comic strips) entitled "Bash St. School" in The Wizard in 1955, and were the full-page cover cartoon on 23 July 1955.

The Bash Street Kids has had a number of spin-offs, including Pup Parade, Simply Smiffy, Plug and Singled Out.

Based on The Bash Street Kids, Singled Out focuses on one character each week[47] and builds a one-page story around them.

There was a Singled Out reprint strip shown a few years later (under the title Bash Street Capers), but this was (quite oddly as it was labelled No.1) a one-off.

A target-practice game featured the characters, and a McDonald's Happy Meal toy set included a number of the kids.