Tim Ronalds Architects has won planning permission to redevelop former industrial buildings in Clerkenwell into a £12m national centre for illustration that will be named in honour of Quentin Blake.

The practice, which counts the stripped-back preservation of the grade II* Wilton’s Music Hall in east London among recent high-profile projects, won a 2020 design competition to transform four 18^th and 19^th century buildings at New River Head into the new home for the House of Illustration.

Islington council has now resolved to grant planning permission for the scheme, which will bring together galleries, a learning studio, public gardens, a shop and a café. The centre will replace the House of Illustration’s former base at Granary Square in King’s Cross and will also house the archive of Blake, who founded the organisation, and display selections from the 40,000 works it contains. Some of his best-known pieces are illustrations for Roald Dahl books.

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