Mayor Gary Heather with Lindsey Glen and Olivia Ahmad

THE first-ever National Day of Illustration came to Islington on Friday as the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration held a pop-up event.

The centre’s director, Lindsey Glen, said they wanted to launch the national day to recognise the importance of illustration and planned to hold the pop-up event, at Angel Central in Parkfield Street, Angel, for the whole weekend.

Describing a project the centre had worked on with older people at the Peel Institute in Clerkenwell, she said: “Illustration is something that we all use in all of our lives. We see it every day, but we don’t often spend time stopping and examining it, and I think it’s an amazing tool for telling your own story. I think these projects are a real testament to that.”

Mayor Gary Heather, who drew a picture of himself, above, as part of the launch day, admitted drawing was not an activity he had done for a while, but was “something I can turn my hand to”.

The Centre for Illustration is set to open in 2025 at the New River site in Amwell Street. Quentin Blake is one of the nation’s favourite artists, not least for his work illustrating Roald Dahl’s children’s books.
He was the first British Children’s Laureate.