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A bird stretches its wings to fly, with a flash of orange and blue, energetically drawn by Sir Quentin Blake in his familiar scratchy style. His minimal black lines are loose, confident and brimming with personality. Few people would fail to instantly recognise them as his illustrations. I grew up with his work – as I am sure did many – and they form a key memory in my childhood. He brought the characters of Roald Dahl to life: Matilda, Willy Wonka and the BFG. Blake’s drawings are so renowned that it is hardly surprising his career has spanned almost 80 years.
We see another bird, green this time, running mischievously, then another, and another. This crackle of cockatoos are the mascots for the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Since the creature is known for its curiosity, problem-solving skills and ability to mimic human speech, it seems fitting that it has been chosen to represent the spirit of illustration. ‘I have liked birds – to look at and to draw – ever since I was a child,’ Blake says. When the centre opens its doors this summer, these joyful creatures will be spotted here and there as ‘an extra note of colour’.
Blake founded the centre as a charity (then called House of Illustration) with a group of friends in 2002. It could be described as a grassroots organisation: practitioners coming together to address the fact that their craft is unsung in museums, galleries and public art centres. As he explains: ‘Illustration doesn’t get so much notice because it isn’t fine art; but it’s a language that everyone understands.’
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The charity originally occupied a small, rented building in King’s Cross in London, which limited its ambitions. This new home is the once-derelict New River Head, a restored 18th-century waterworks in nearby Clerkenwell. The project cost £12.5 million in total, including funding from Blake himself (along with other philanthropists) and a £3.75 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
It is the UK’s only permanent space dedicated to the art of illustration and will host residencies exploring the social, industrial and environmental change in the area and beyond. The opening exhibitions align with the centre’s vision and encapsulate the discipline’s breadth and diversity. The highlight is Quentin Blake: Performance, examining how theatre has shaped his career, with previously unseen works on display. Alongside is Queer as Comics, featuring the country’s first published gay comic strip. A debut solo show by Murugiah, a British/Sri Lankan illustrator, completes the inaugural line-up.
There is also a free-to-access library, where you can browse hundreds of books and magazines beneath a set of screenprints and linocuts by Sophy Hollington. Outside, the garden has been conceived by landscape designer Sue Amos to be ‘fluid like water and a little bit wild’, brimming with ‘opportunities to draw’.
And what of the challenges facing illustration today? It seems only fitting that the centre should open at a time when the industry is threatened by the march of AI. And so its role celebrating the illustrator as a creative force that cannot be replicated is all the more vital.
The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is now open. For more details visit qpcentre.org.uk
A version of this story appeared in the August 2026 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers
