A Home for Illustration at Last: The Quentin Blake Centre Opens in London
More than twenty years in the making, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opened in June 2026 in a beautifully restored 18th-century waterworks in Clerkenwell — a permanent national centre dedicated to the art of illustration.
CultureGNGV Editorial Team5 min read
Illustration has finally been given a permanent home of its own. In June 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 a permanent national 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.
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.
