Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opens this week in London

Since the 1960s, Britons have been growing up with Quentin Blake's fabulous illustrations to books by Roald Dahl, Joan Aiken, Elizabeth Bowen, Sylvia Plath, William Steig, and even the first Dr. Seuss book that Seuss did not himself illustrate. Hundreds of them! And that's not including his other work. Sir Quentin, now 93, is to open the world's largest dedicated space for illustration in London later this week. The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is at the renovated 18th-century New River Head waterworks on Myddelton Passage (a typically peculiar London attraction in its own right)

Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is the UK's only permanent place for illustration, opening Friday 5 June 2026.

When we open in Clerkenwell, London, our three galleries in a former waterworks will showcase the breadth and dynamism of illustration through regularly changing exhibitions.

Visitors can explore our free spaces, including public gardens, displays and an illustration library. A café serving fresh food in historic surroundings will also be on offer as well as a shop stocked with unique illustration gifts.

He already unveiled a new work at the center—one that would need a rather large volume to reproduce at scale.

The mural, A Bridge to the Past (2026), evokes the social history of the New River and the enduring relationship between people and water. … Quentin's drawing depicts a bridge over the New River filled with figures from different eras drawn to the river through the ages. To tell the New River's story, Quentin drew inspiration from Isaac Cruikshank's 1796 engraving of men fishing the New River in formal attire, while other characters are from his imagination. His swimmers and creatures are timeless – neither historic nor contemporary.

Here's Quentin on his plans, from the centre's YouTube channel.