Quentin Blake Gives Travellers A Cheerful Welcome

Quentin Blake has worked with property developers to make an entire building in central London disappear. He was commissioned to provide a giant drawing to hide the empty and boarded up Stanley Building South, which stands on the edge of the £2bn King's Cross redevelopment. It was felt thet it was too much of an eyesore to be the first thing that passengers see as they step off the high-speed train from Paris.

Blake, 75, was asked to create "an imaginary welcoming committee". He has included characters singing and dancing, swigging beer and enjoying food. "It is a scene of celebration with bunting and flag-waving to greet the new arrivals. It is an arresting image to make visitors feel that they have arrived somewhere fun, welcoming and memorable."

Blake, who illustrated Dahl classics such as The Twits and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, was chosen because he was interested in a proposal to open a Museum of Illustration somewhere on the redevelopment site.

Richard Oseley quotes Blake in the Camden New Journal. He said: “It’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to work on this exciting project, and see my drawings reproduced on such a huge scale.
“We hope it will give travellers a cheerful welcome to London as they arrive at St Pancras International.”

See article from The Independent for the full story