{"id":709318,"date":"2026-06-02T04:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/709318\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T04:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:54:20","slug":"quentin-blake-creates-bridge-to-the-past-for-new-london-illustration-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/709318\/","title":{"rendered":"Quentin Blake creates \u2018bridge to the past\u2019 for new London illustration museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of its opening later this week, a new mural by Sir Quentin Blake has been unveiled at his new gallery and museum of illustration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(c) Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration<\/p>\n

The mural, A Bridge to the Past, is said to evoke the social history of the New River, where the new illustration centre is housed, as well as the enduring relationship between people and water.<\/p>\n

The new Quentin Blake Illustration Centre will open this Friday on the site of the New River Company\u2019s Clerkenwell pumping station and offices. The New River Company was set up in the early 1600s to dig a long canal from Hertfordshire to London to bring fresh water to the city.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s part of the city\u2019s infrastructure, it was also an unofficial source of joy and relaxation for local people looking to connect with the natural world. Although swimming, fishing and bathing were officially prohibited and people were arrested for doing it, reports from the 1830s claim up to a thousand people were bathing in the river every summer.<\/p>\n

Today, that\u2019s less of an issue, and the water course is still bringing fresh water to London.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>New River Head buildings (c) ianVisits<\/p>\n

Quentin\u2019s drawing depicts a bridge over the New River, filled with figures from different eras drawn to it over the ages. To tell the New River\u2019s story, Quentin drew inspiration from Isaac Cruikshank\u2019s 1796 engraving of men fishing the New River in formal attire, while other characters are from his imagination.<\/p>\n

Quentin Blake said, \u201cI was especially pleased to be asked to produce a mural for Quentin Blake Centre\u2019s cafe. You will see that I have drawn a bridge. It does not actually exist but I needed one to act as a bridge to the past. Crossing it are folk in period costume; they are all invented by me, except for the two men fishing who are borrowed from a print made in the 1700s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Created in ink by Quentin with calming blues, it has been digitally scaled up to sit on the Centre\u2019s cafe wall, measuring almost 5m by 2m.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the opening, the Centre will give away free exhibition tickets to the first 50 people* to creatively illustrate an official voucher collected on-site on the opening morning.<\/p>\n

The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration<\/a> will open at 10am on Friday 5th June, and is about a 10 minute walk from Angel tube station.<\/p>\n

Adults: \u00a315.00
\nStudent: \u00a311.50
\nChildren (5-17): \u00a36
\nChildren (4 and under): Free
\nUniversal credit (etc): \u00a31
\nNational Art Pass: \u00a37.50<\/p>\n

Details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

*They reserve the right to limit the time of the free offer until 11am on Friday 5th June 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of its opening later this week, a new mural by Sir Quentin Blake has been unveiled at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-709318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}