The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, a new public space for illustration in London, has opened to the public.
The centre will run a programme of ticketed exhibitions, as well as a free displays, activities, a garden and illustration library.
The venue has opened in the historic Dunard Engine House, a redeveloped 18th and 19th-century waterworks in Clerkenwell, London.
Tim Ronalds Architects led the renovation, a £12.5m project that included £3.75m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Other investment came from the London Borough of Islington as well as from trusts, foundations and philanthropists.
Three ticketed exhibitions open this week. The centre’s inaugural Quentin Blake exhibition, titled Quentin Blake: Performance (until April 2027), demonstrates the artist’s depiction of theatre through illustration over the last 70 years of his career.
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The site’s windmill base houses artist residency show, Murugiah: Ever Feel Like (until 31 August), a solo show by British-Sri Lankan artist Murugiah, whose colourful work explores themes around daily life and identity.
The free-to-enter public illustration library at the venue houses more than 1,000 publications and offers a comfortable space where visitors can read illustrated books, comics, graphic novels, picture books and zines.
Visitors can also enjoy new gardens designed by landscape designer Sue Amos. Plants have also been selected to reference illustration, including raw materials for inks, timber for charcoal and leaves for tracing.
The site's history of engineering, labour, natural resources and urban development is told through interpretation panels designed by illustrator Nina Chakrabarti.
Playable benches designed by experts Play Build Play provide fun for families, while the Studio Garden, an enclosed play surface, will be available to visiting schools and open to the public on weekends.
The cafe, run by catering company Deeney’s, with a new large wall mural by nonagenarian Blake, titled A Bridge to the Past, which explores the history of the building its function of supplying water to London. The centre’s shop stocks illustration and exhibition related gifts and souvenirs.
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Lindsey Glen, the director of the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, said: "This Friday we celebrate a landmark opening: a permanent national centre for an artform that is used every day, all over the world, to share stories and ideas. We are so excited to welcome our first visitors. We hope to inspire them to look at the world afresh and empower them with new creative skills and tools of their own."
Illustrator Quentin Blake said: “Illustration is a language that is both expressive and easily understood. Some form of it probably exists all over the world, and it’s an art in which our country has a great tradition. One also which I have practised with joy and fascination for the 70 years of my working life. You will understand if I am enthusiastic that as many people may be able to share in the riches it offers.
"I am passionate in my enthusiasm for New River Head. One day I hope it will show some of my archive of several thousand original drawings—but, much more importantly, it will be an international centre for the display, discussion and celebration of the extraordinary wealth of what illustration has to offer."
Blake founded his charity dedicated to illustration in 2002, always with the aim of creating the UK’s first public space dedicated to illustration. In 2014, the charity opened the House of Illustration, a public space in King’s Cross with galleries, a learning studio and a shop.
The venue ran exhibitions, residencies, talks and creative workshops but was always looking for a larger permanent home. New River Head, a derelict waterworks in Clerkenwell, was purchased by Blake’s charity with the help of a donation in 2019 and fundraising began to restore it.