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London’s House of Illustration is the UK’s only public gallery and education space devoted to illustration and graphics. Sadly for illustration fans, the gallery has remained closed since the UK’s lockdown in March, but this summer has announced that it will be reopening in Autumn 2022 as The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, which will be the world’s largest public arts space for illustration.

The Centre will be housed in the historic industrial site of New River Head in Islington, which has remained largely unchanged for almost 400 years, and includes the remains of London’s only surviving windmill. Encompassing four 18th and 19th-century industrial buildings, and half an acre of surrounding land, the site will be redeveloped into a new cultural landmark featuring exhibition galleries, event spaces, education studios, and a shop and cafe.

The £8 million project will celebrate illustration as an art form, and will explore the importance of graphic art in our lives. It will also house the archive of House of Illustration’s founder, the celebrated illustrator Sir Quentin Blake, with over 40,000 works on permanent display.

Sir Quentin Blake has written and illustrated hundreds of books, and his illustrations for the works of Roald Dahl and Michael Rosen have been loved by children across the globe. Formerly Head of the illustration department at the Royal College of Art, in 1999 he was appointed the first ever Children’s Laureate, and was knighted for ‘services to illustration’ in 2013. Announcing the project, he declared: “I am enormously proud to have my name associated with this international home for an art which I know and love, and for artists who speak in a myriad of visual languages, but are understood by all. It is going to be amazing.”

The redevelopment project will be led by Tim Ronalds Architects, whose work includes some of London’s best loved arts and cultural venues, including Hackney Empire Theatre, Ironmonger Row Baths, and Wilton’s Music Hall, and who were chosen from over 200 international practises to oversee it. Images released for the project show relaxed, light-filled spaces that showcase the site’s striking industrial features

House of Illustration has already raised over £3 million of its £8 million target for the project, including £1 million in financing from the Architectural Heritage Fund. The remaining budget is set to be raised through individual donations, grants from trusts, foundations and a public fundraising campaign.

The Centre will also allow House of Illustration to continue its pioneering education and events programme, which has reached over 1 million people since 2014, and to support the work of emerging creators. The gallery’s current site in Granary Square, King’s Cross, will remain closed in the interim, with its programme of workshops and classes for both adults and children continuing online. A series of touring exhibitions will also be travelling throughout the UK, including shows dedicated to the work of illustrators Raymond Briggs, Tom of Finland, and W.E.B. Du Bois.