{"id":241499,"date":"2025-11-03T14:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/241499\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T14:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:50:09","slug":"londons-new-quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration-to-open-in-may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/241499\/","title":{"rendered":"London\u2019s new Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration to open in May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new museum will open in London next year, as the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration has confirmed its delayed opening date.<\/p>\n

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

The new museum will be housed in a 300-year-old former waterworks in Clerkenwell, which was primarily a pumping station supplying clean water to London and was also one of London\u2019s first major pieces of urban infrastructure.<\/p>\n

However, its 18th\u2014and 19th-century buildings have been locked up and left empty for over 70 years.<\/p>\n

The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration<\/a>, formerly the House of Illustration in King\u2019s Cross, acquired the site in 2019 with the expectation of opening the museum in 2022. However, the pandemic and construction cost inflation delayed the work while they completed the \u00a312.5 million fundraising needed to open the museum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Illustrator impression of the new Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration (c) Nora Walter<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve now confirmed that it will open in May 2026, and its first exhibition will be by the surrealist artist, Murugiah. The Centre will announce additional opening exhibitions early next year while original illustrations from leading and emerging illustrators, including work loaned from Blake\u2019s own archive, will also be displayed.<\/p>\n

A free library, learning spaces and introductory displays to illustration will also be on offer. The Centre will install a series of permanent commissions that reveal the site\u2019s 400-year history, and artist residencies will be hosted at London\u2019s oldest surviving windmill.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s founder Quentin Blake says, \u201cI have long dreamt of a permanent place with \u201cILLUSTRATION\u201d above the door, and now the amazing reality is that we have it. I am proud to think the Centre has my name on it \u2013 illustration is a wonderful universal and varied language. Here we shall celebrate its traditions and welcome the astonishing diversity of visual language from across the world. Hurrah!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(c) ianVisits<\/p>\n

Support for the \u00a312.5 million project includes \u00a33.75 million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to money raised by National Lottery players. Other support came from the London Borough of Islington and support from trusts, foundations and philanthropists.<\/p>\n

When it opens, the museum will be about a 10-minute walk from Angel station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new museum will open in London next year, as the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration has confirmed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-241499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}