New gallery is picture perfect!
After six years of planning, Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration finally opens
Friday, 5th June — By Isabel Loubser
Quentin Blake and artist director Olivia Ahmad view works in the exhibition ‘Quentin Blake Performance’ at the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration ahead of its public opening on June 5 2026 [Benedict Johnson, 2026]
AFTER six years of planning, building, and curating art, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration has finally opened its doors.
The gallery, housed in the New River Head site in Amwell Street, Clerkenwell, welcomed visitors this week for the very first time.
It means that the centuries-old building, which had stood empty for seven decades, is now being put to use. There are three exhibition spaces, including a permanent collection of more than 100 original and rarely-seen drawings from Mr Blake, who is now 93.
The illustrator is mostly known for his long collaboration with children’s author Roald Dahl, during which he visually crafted some of the writer’s best-loved characters, including the BFG, Willy Wonka and The Witches.
Quentin Blake beside A Bridge to the Past (2026), a new mural commissioned for the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration ahead of its public opening on 5 June 2026. [Benedict Johnson, 2026]
The Enormous Crocodile is featured in the exhibition, as well as Mr Blake’s depictions of 40 Macbeth characters as birds, and illustrations from the artist’s 1995 picture book Clown.
Elsewhere, a bold and colourful exhibition from Murugiah is on show, as well as a groundbreaking exhibition charting 70 years of queer comic-making.
Director Lindsey Glen 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.”
She added: “We’re so grateful to Quentin Blake, who has tirelessly championed illustration and spearheaded this project, to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and to the philanthropists and grant-makers who have made this possible. Thank you!”
• Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, 1 Myddelton Passage, EC1R 1AG/
Open 10am-5pm, Wednesday-Sunday. Last entry 4.30pm.
https://qbcentre.org.uk
