A Home for Illustration at Last: The Quentin Blake Centre Opens in London

Illustration has finally been given a permanent home of its own. On June 5, 2026, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opened its doors at New River Head in Clerkenwell, London, welcoming the public into a set of beautifully restored 18th- and 19th-century waterworks buildings that once helped supply the capital with drinking water and now house the country's first dedicated centre for the art form.

The idea dates back more than two decades, to the charity that the beloved illustrator Quentin Blake — best known for his exuberant drawings for Roald Dahl's books — helped establish in 2002. Realized as a roughly £12.5 million project, with £3.75 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund alongside support from the London Borough of Islington and private philanthropy, the centre transforms a historic industrial site into a lively cultural destination while preserving its architectural character.

“On June 5, 2026, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opened its doors at New River Head in Clerkenwell, London, welcoming the public into a set of beautifully restored 18th- and 19th-century waterworks buildings that once helped supply the capital with drinking water and now house the country's first dedicated centre for the art form.”

Visitors will find three galleries hosting a regularly changing programme of exhibitions, a reference library holding more than a thousand publications, a café run by local caterers, a shop and newly planted gardens designed by Sue Amos, complete with playable benches and a studio garden for families. The aim is a place that treats illustration not as a minor craft but as a rich, serious art that tells stories and shapes how we see the world — welcoming to scholars and small children alike.

The opening programme sets the tone. “Quentin Blake: Performance,” on view into April 2027, celebrates the artist's theatrical and expressive work; “Queer as Comics” traces the history of LGBTQIA+ comics from the 1940s onward; and “MURUGIAH: Ever Feel Like…,” a solo show by the British–Sri Lankan artist installed in the base of a former windmill, runs through the end of August. Together they showcase the sheer breadth and dynamism of contemporary illustration.

For a discipline often admired but rarely given institutional pride of place, the centre is a milestone. It offers illustrators a stage worthy of their work, gives the public a joyful new destination in the heart of London, and rescues a cluster of historic buildings for a vibrant public purpose. More than twenty years after it was first imagined, the vision of a home for illustration has become, at last, a place you can walk into.