The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration – the UK’s only public arts organisation dedicated to the craft of illustration – has found its perfect home. Having been awarded a £3.75 million grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, it is set to restore and move into the derelict New River Head heritage site in Clerkenwell.
With this money, the arts charity will be able to create four galleries, a project space, a learning studio, gardens, a play space, a cafe, and a shop. The site is also the culmination of Quentin Blake’s long-held vision to set up a permanent national centre for illustration, one that will explore the medium’s rich heritage.
Once complete, the project will provide exhibitions, tours, and events that shine a light on illustrators and their impact on our lives. Meanwhile, creative projects will empower people to share their own stories, heritage, and ideas, with schools, families, community centres, and practising illustrators set to get involved.
In addition, the site will provide employment and volunteering opportunities. In conjunction with local partnerships, these possibilities will be a welcome relief in an industry that has long-standing challenges in terms of employment and well-being.
Quentin Blake at House of Illustration, 2014 © Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration
New River Head © Justin Piperger
Garden ideas share drop in at New River Head © Valentina Zunino
Quentin Blake, founder of Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, said: “New River Head will be the most extraordinary home for the art of illustration; the building could not be more appropriate if we’d designed it specially, and its setting is especially charming and sympathetic.
“One day, it will show some of my archive of several thousand original drawings, but, much more importantly, it will be an international centre to display, discuss and celebrate the extraordinary wealth of illustration. We’re thrilled and thankful to have The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s support behind us.”
The site will also be a permanent home for Blake’s archive of over 40,000 works created over seven decades. This will be the largest and most comprehensive catalogue of a single British illustrator, promising to provide unique insights into the 20th and 21st-century worlds of storytelling and publishing.
As a location, the atmospheric Grade II listed engine house is a fitting one. In a previous life, it played an essential role in supplying Londoners with clean water from the early 1600s onwards. Complete with cobbled courtyards and a windmill base, it looks and sounds like something out of a picture book.
With the generous cash investment, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration will be able to sensitively restore and repurpose the site later this year with the help of Tim Ronald Architects. The Clerkenwell-based practice has won awards for projects including Wilton’s Music Hall, Ironmonger Row Baths, The Landmark Ilfracombe, and Hackney Empire, so the charity is in safe, capable hands.
New River Head © Justin Piperger
© Quentin Blake 2014
Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration © Quentin Blake
Garden ideas share drop in at New River Head © Valentina Zunino
Lindsey Glen, director of Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, said: “We’re overjoyed to bring the national centre for illustration to Clerkenwell, restoring and opening up hidden heritage with help from The Heritage Fund.
“The Quentin Blake Centre will breathe new life into New River Head’s atmospheric engine house, windmill base and stores, offering exhibitions, creative projects, gardens and play. It will be a welcoming, vibrant place where everyone’s stories and ideas matter, and every visitor leaves looking differently at the world around them.”
Thanks to the grant, work on the site will begin this autumn. If fans want to make their mark with a donation, the charity welcomes them on its support page. With £1m to be raised by the end of the year, every contribution can help make this amazing project a reality.
Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler, ambassador for the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, said: “I’m very happy to hear that the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration has received funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and has taken a big step towards opening. It will be a unique place in Europe to celebrate illustration, which is an art form that has a great presence in our lives and is often overlooked.”
Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration trustee and illustrator Marion Deuchars added:” “As an illustrator, I’m thrilled to share this news. Illustration often marks many people’s first experience with art, influencing and inspiring from an early age. We’re deeply grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for helping us open the new Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, a unique venue where history and creativity meet and all can explore and appreciate this art form.”
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