Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: House Of Illustration, Quentin Blake Centre For Illustration. London. 2024

The Quentin Blake Centre For Illustration Will Open In London In 2025

The House of Illustration will repone next year as the Quentin Blake Centre For Illustration in a new location in London.

Published Sat, 30 Dec 2023 09:57:09 -0600

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Thu, 11 Jan 2024 09:20:59 -0600

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Article Summary

The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opens in London in 2024.
Previously the House of Illustration, it will feature 40,000 Blake works.
The new venue resides in historic New River Head buildings, Islington.
Engage with classes, online exhibitions, and Blake's touring collections.

The House of Illustration first opened a decade ago next to King's Cross station in London, offering exhibitions, classes, talks and lots of Quentin Blake. You will see it all over the Things To Do In London If You Like Comics lists that Bleeding Cool ran. But the pandemic and shutdowns hit the House of Illustration hard. It went online for many offerings and took exhibitions around the country but lost its location.

But that's okay. In 2024, it is returning to a less central but much bigger London location in Islington/Clerkenwell and has been renamed after its founder, Sir Quentin Blake, best known for his Roald Dahl illustrations, and will contain 40,000 examples of his work.

The Quentin Blake Centre For Illustration Will Open In London In 2025 — New River Head buildings by Lionel Allorge – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration will open physically next year in the New River Head buildings off Amwell Street, which brings new meaning to the word "new" as they date back 400 years. Originally a water facility, part of an artificial river or "new river" that opened in 1613 to supply water to London. Later inhabitants included the Metropolitan Water Board, the Thames Water Authority and Thames Water plc. Now, it will have exhibition galleries, education studios, events space, a shop and a café.

Cartoonist Chris Riddell tells tomorrow's Observer that he is "thrilled to see it coming to fruition… it embodies illustration in the widest sense, from traditional book illustration through fashion, comics and reportage illustration to live drawing events and more."

Until opening, it will continue with online exhibitions, classes and touring shows of the collections, including Racheal Ball's guide to creating a graphic novel online course from January through to March, a new exhibition Bloomin' Brilliant: The Life and Work of Raymond Briggs in April at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft in East Sussex. While in February, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum will exhibit Sir Quentin Blake's book covers. And online, they have the work of Jo Brocklehurst, who created comic strips and illustrations about punks, actors and nightclubbers from the 70s onwards in London, Berlin, and New York.

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