Illustrator impression of the new Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration © Nora Walter
The Islington site will house four galleries and the famed illustrator’s archive of over 40,000 works
Arts charity Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration has been awarded a £3.75 million grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore the derelict New River Head buildings, making it the charity’s first home.
The heritage site in Clerkenwell will be opened up as a permanent public space, offering new galleries, learning areas and gardens. The latest grant brings the total funding secured to acquire and develop the site to £11.5 million, with work due to begin this autumn.
The project is hoped to result in four galleries, a project base, a learning studio, gardens and play space, a café and a shop.It will also secure a permanent home for Blake’s archive of over 40,000 works, created over seven decades.
The location for the Centre, the New River Head heritage site in Clerkenwell consists of a Grade II listed engine house, windmill base and cobbled courtyard. Currently derelict and locked behind iron gates, the works planned will repurpose and restore the site later this year, led by Tim Ronald Architects.
Arts charity Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration has been awarded a £3.75 million grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore the derelict New River Head buildings, making it the charity’s first home.
The heritage site in Clerkenwell will be opened up as a permanent public space, offering new galleries, learning areas and gardens. The latest grant brings the total funding secured to acquire and develop the site to £11.5 million, with work due to begin this autumn.
The project is hoped to result in four galleries, a project base, a learning studio, gardens and play space, a café and a shop.It will also secure a permanent home for Blake’s archive of over 40,000 works, created over seven decades.
The location for the Centre, the New River Head heritage site in Clerkenwell consists of a Grade II listed engine house, windmill base and cobbled courtyard. Currently derelict and locked behind iron gates, the works planned will repurpose and restore the site later this year, led by Tim Ronald Architects.
Quentin Blake, illustrator and founder of Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, said: “New River Head will be the most extraordinary home for the art of illustration; the building could not be more appropriate if we’d designed it specially, and it’s setting is especially charming and sympathetic.
“One day it will show some of my archive of several thousand original drawings but, much more importantly, it will be an international centre for the display, discussion and celebration of the extraordinary wealth of illustration. We’re thrilled and thankful to have The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s support behind us.”
