Alistair Hardaker | Image: Wishing horse at Quentin Blake Centre © Pete Speller
The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration has recorded more than 15,000 visitors in its first two months and extended one of its opening exhibitions.
The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration has welcomed more than 15,000 visitors in its first two months, and has extended one of its opening exhibitions.
The centre, in Clerkenwell, London, opened on 5 June and reached the figure on 2 August. Visitors have access to free and paid spaces, including exhibitions, public artworks, a library, garden, shop and a cafe run by Deeney’s.
In response to demand, the centre has extended MURUGIAH: Ever Feel Like… until 4 October. The exhibition is the UK’s first examination of LGBTQIA+ comics and the first solo exhibition by the designer and illustrator MURUGIAH. A third exhibition, Quentin Blake: Performance, remains on display until April 2027, with all three accessible on one ticket.
The centre has also added two outdoor sculptural works. Chip, The Horse That Carried The City commemorates the horses that worked at the former New River Head waterworks. It was created by Such Stories, the design studio of illustrator and ceramicist Laura Carlin and creative director Jo Briggs, who worked with local schools and family groups whose illustrations feature on the statue’s plinth. The sculpture includes a star in its hoof that visitors are encouraged to “press to wish”. Made from concrete, metal and resin by The White Wall Company, it stands over two metres tall and weighs 6 tonnes.
The centre has also installed a weathervane designed by Quentin Blake, incorporating one of his cockatoos, atop the base of London’s oldest remaining windmill fragment, which dates back to 1707. Blake also designed a 5-metre mural in the cafe.
Quentin Blake said: “I have liked birds – to look at and to draw – ever since I was a child; and more recently I have found that if you need an extra note of colour, a small parrot or cockatoo is very useful.”
The centre opened following a £12.5 million campaign, including £3.75 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with further investment from the London Borough of Islington and support from trusts, foundations and philanthropists. Chip was supported by the Barbara and Philip Denny Charitable Trust and the weathervane by the Dunard Fund.
Director Lindsey Glen said: “Illustration is a brilliant tool for understanding the past and imagining the future. Thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we’ve been able to work with illustrators to explore and share the 400-year history of the New River Head industrial heritage site, now beautifully restored and repurposed as our national centre for illustration, reaching thousands of visitors in weeks.”
