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The world’s largest space dedicated to illustration is here. More than two decades after celebrated English cartoonist and children’s book illustrator Quentin Blake began championing the idea, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opened this week in Clerkenwell as the UK’s first permanent public home for illustration.
More than a museum, the Centre combines three exhibition galleries with a free public library, landscaped gardens, a café, shop and community spaces. Its ambitions extend beyond the gallery walls too, with programmes for schools, families and community groups, alongside plans to resume touring exhibitions across the UK from 2027.
The Centre officially opens this Friday 5 June, but Time Out was lucky enough to get a sneak peek inside ahead of its grand opening. Here’s what the Centre has in store.
What’s the Quentin Blake Centre like inside?
The Centre occupies a former 18th- and 19th-century waterworks at New River Head in Clerkenwell. Led by Tim Ronalds Architects, the redevelopment preserves much of the site’s industrial character, with the former Engine House now home to the public library and the Boiler House transformed into a café overlooking the gardens.
The library, the UK’s first dedicated public illustration library, is stocked with more than 1,000 picture books, graphic novels and zines. The shelves range from Quentin Blake’s own books to classics by Maurice Sendak, creator of Where the Wild Things Are, and Tove Jansson’s Moomin stories, alongside contemporary illustrators from around the world. A rotating display of original artworks introduces visitors to contemporary illustration, with printmaker Sophy Hollington the first featured artist.
Operated by east London favourite Deeney’s, the light-filled café opens onto a south-facing terrace overlooking the gardens. It’s also home to Quentin Blake's new mural A Bridge to the Past (2026). Stretching almost five metres across one wall, the work depicts an imagined bridge across the New River populated by figures from different eras. ‘It does not actually exist,’ Blake says of the bridge, ‘but I needed one to act as a bridge to the past.’
Outside, newly landscaped gardens connect different parts of the site, including the Windmill Base, London’s oldest surviving windmill, which will host changing displays created in collaboration with illustrators and local communities. The first project, Exquisite Bodies, has been developed by refugees and migrants working alongside British-Sri Lankan artist MURUGIAH. And after heading to the galleries, don’t miss the shop, which is stocked with illustration-themed books, prints and gifts.
What are the best things to see at the Centre?
Three paid exhibitions launch the Centre. One will always be dedicated to a different aspect of Blake’s practice, while the others spotlight contemporary illustrations and broader histories of the medium.
So first up is Performance, which explores how theatre has shaped Quentin Blake’s nearly 80-year career. On view until April 2027, it brings together more than 100 original works, many never previously displayed. Highlights include Blake’s opening-night sketches of Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer, illustrations of Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett, and original drawings for The Enormous Crocodile, whose toothy protagonist was inspired by the crocodile in Victorian Punch and Judy shows. The real joy, however, lies in the opportunity to look behind the finished page, with preparatory sketches, pasted-up layouts and watercolour studies revealing how some of Blake’s most beloved books came together.
For something completely different, head downstairs to MURUGIAH: Ever Feel Like... (until 31 August 2026), the first in a new series of exhibitions spotlighting contemporary UK-based illustrators. The artist’s first solo exhibition is a riot of colour, bringing together paintings, sculptures, animations and commercial commissions inspired by his Sri Lankan heritage, Welsh upbringing and childhood spent playing Nintendo and listening to pop-punk. Keep an eye out for the cover he created for Time Out in 2021.
And before exiting through the gift shop, Queer as Comics (until 4 October 2026) occupies the Centre’s largest exhibition space. The UK’s first major exhibition on queer comic-making, it spans more than 70 years of LGBTQIA+ storytelling, from Tove Jansson's Moomin strips and Tom of Finland's Initiation into the Brotherhood (1946) to material from influential comics anthologies including Tits & Clits, Gay Heartthrobs and Dyke's Delight.
Whether you’re discovering Quentin Blake for the first time, rediscovering the books you grew up with, reading them to a new generation, or sheltering from a rainy half-term afternoon, there’s something here for everyone. London is all the better for it.
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