What We Do
Image above: The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Credit: Hufton + Crow.
A complex of 18th- and 19th-century water-pumping structures at the New River Head in Clerkenwell, London, have been restored and reopened as the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.
The New River Head is a historic industrial site that takes its name from the reservoir at the mouth of the New River, created at the beginning of the 17th century to provide London with an essential source of clean water.
From 1613, water was piped downhill from the New River Head into the city. As London continued growing westwards, however, more energy was needed to get the water to its customers. The New River Company tried using a windmill, but much more effective were the steam-powered pumps installed from 1768 in a purpose-built engine house, which was later extended to include coal stores and boiler houses.
For nearly two hundred years, the New River provided clean water for drinking and washing to generations of Londoners, and played an important part in public health improvements. However, as water management practices and supply networks began to change, the New River Head eventually fell into disuse. The site converted from steam to electric power in 1954, and the engine house was subsequently decommissioned.
In 2019, after decades of lying empty and falling into dereliction, the site was purchased by the team behind the House of Illustration – a partnership of illustrators led by Sir Quentin Blake that curate exhibitions, talks, residencies and public workshops, all designed to share the joy and opportunity for expression that illustration offers. Searching for a new, permanent home for their work, the team began fundraising to restore the New River Head.
Through the Heritage Impact Fund, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England, the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) provided a landmark £1 million development loan at a critical stage of the project, helping to unlock more than £12 million towards delivery.
Today, following the completion of the project, several neglected historic structures at New River Head have been saved from dereliction and transformed into the UK’s only, and the world’s largest, public art space dedicated to illustration.
Sir Quentin Blake in front of new mural commissioned for the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Credit: Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.
Based within the repurposed engine house, boiler house, coal stores and windmill base, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration officially opened at the beginning of June and has since welcomed more than 15,000 visitors through its doors to enjoy all that it has to offer. The dynamic creative space includes free displays, installations and a library of Sir Quentin’s extensive illustration archive, as well as three ticketed galleries with a changing programme of exhibitions and a creative studio for local illustrators and school children. The site also houses a free, accessible garden, along with a café and terrace, a shop, and a range of new visitor facilities.
Exhibition space inside the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Credit: Hufton + Crow.
For more information, please visit the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration website.
The AHF has a range of funds, including grants and social investment, available for not-for-profit organisations across the UK who want to bring historic buildings back into use. For more information, please visit our Funding Page.