If you grew up reading the stories of Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, George’s Marvelous Medicine, The Witches), you’ll recognize the illustrations of Sir Quentin Blake. His distinctive, scratchy line drawings have long accompanied the British author’s literary works, bringing Dahl’s pantheon of mischievous characters to life.
Now, visitors can see original works by Blake alongside thousands of other illustrations at a new London museum dedicated to the art form. Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, which opened in early June in the London neighborhood of Clerkenwell inside a restored 18th- and 19th-century waterworks site, is home to three ticketed galleries and other free-to-visit areas, including an illustration library and a garden.
Illustration has never had its own dedicated gallery in the United Kingdom, despite the art form’s influence in shaping children’s books, graphic novels, street signs, and even smartphone design, according to the center’s artistic director Olivia Ahmad. “Illustration is art with a job to do,” she says. “It’s art where somebody has something specific they want to communicate to the person seeing the work.”
Sir Quentin Blake illustrated Roald Dahl classics Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches.
Photo by Alex Ingram
The inaugural exhibitions reflect the breadth of illustration today: Queer as Comics, on view until October 4, 2026, brings together works by LGBTQ+ comic artists from around the world. Meanwhile, Quentin Blake: Performance, running through April 2027, examines Blake’s lifelong connection to theater and displays his illustrations of famous stage productions—including original drawings for Dahl’s picture book The Enormous Crocodile, which was adapted into a musical—alongside playful sketches, such as some wickedly clever doodles of Macbeth characters reimagined as birds.
The center encourages visitors to linger beyond the ticketed galleries. The free illustration library is home to more than 2,000 books, including picture books, graphic novels, comics and zines, and a regularly changing installation of artworks. An on-site creative studio hosts artist residencies, community projects, and workshops for all skill levels. The center aims to be “a place where things are made, not just displayed,” according to Ahmad.
The exhibition Quentin Blake: Performance displays Blake’s theater-related drawings.
Photo by Benedict Johnson
The garden, designed by Sue Amos, is home to plants historically used to make artists’ materials. Panels by the U.K.-based illustrator Nina Chakrabarti outline the site’s 400-year history as a waterworks. You can also visit a giant “wishing horse” sculpture, which was created with the help of local schoolchildren. A bell rings when visitors press a concealed button to “grant” their wish. There’s also a whimsical, Quentin Blake–designed weather vane atop a restored windmill.
While Blake’s name is on the museum’s wall, the center is designed to celebrate illustration in all its forms. Contemporary artists from across the U.K. and farther afield—and who work across disciplines including printmaking, ceramics, embroidery, painting, comics, and sculpture—are presented at the center and in its online collection. Ahmad points visitors to the display of printmaker Sophy Hollington’s carved lino blocks, which visitors are allowed to handle to better understand the artist’s printing process. The third exhibition currently on view is Murugiah: Ever Feel Like . . . (through August 31, 2026), a kaleidoscopic celebration of Sri Lankan–Welsh multidisciplinary illustrator Murugiah’s colorful, creative world.
Quentin Blake Centre joins a wave of major cultural openings across London in 2026. Earlier this year, the V&A East Storehouse opened in Hackney Wick at the far east of the city (one of Afar’s recommended places to visit in 2026), offering a behind-the-scenes look at how museum collections are curated and preserved. The V&A East Museum also debuted in Stratford, with free galleries exploring how art, design, and performance continue to shape our lives.
Elsewhere, Museum of Youth Culture has just unveiled its first permanent home in Camden, and the London Museum is set to reopen this November in a new location at the historic Smithfield Market.
